A Will To Protect
by fringeperson
Summary: Two amnesiacs are found in the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack. They have no records within the village, or from anywhere else. Cleared by T&I, they are then given permission by the Hokage to raise an orphan. Little bits of who they were slowly leak into who they are though. Don't own anything. 3-way X-over with InuYasha and Rurouni Kenshin. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

It was a month into the clean-up after the Kyuubi incident that they were found. Two people, both wearing kimono and hakama, who seemed to have been surviving on what water had leaked through the cracks in the collapsed building and, judging by the small pile of refuse in one corner, instant ramen. Both were, naturally, filthy, very grateful for the rescue, sick, and looking forward to eating something _other_ than instant ramen, and the chance to get properly clean.

"What's your names?" asked the shinobi that helped them out and into the mercifully fresh air.

There hadn't been a lot of that available to them either, and there had been times when they'd worried about being buried alive, and dying down there.

"Um..." the young woman hesitated, an uncomfortable expression on her face as she fiddled with her necklace.

"We don't know," the young man supplied plainly.

"You don't know," repeated the shinobi flatly, unimpressed with the answer in the extreme and suddenly very suspicious of the two.

The young woman sighed, shoulders heaving up before sagging. "We've had however long we were down there to adjust to the fact that neither of us can remember our own names, or anything else personal about _who_ we are, even when we can remember how to make a fire, tie the knots of our obi, and read the instructions on the ramen cups," she explained. "It's kinda frustrating," she added with a pout.

"Well, I'll take you to the hospital anyway, and maybe one of the Yamanaka can sort you out," the shinobi decided.

~oOo~

Once they were clean, it was clear that the young woman had black hair, rather than dusty grey-brown, and the young man had vibrant red beneath the same coating of grime that had disguised the hair-colour of the young woman. The young man also had a distinctive cross-shaped scar on his left cheek that, amazingly enough, no one in the hospital recognised. Then again, both of them seemed to have a fair grasp of first aid, and even had better knowledge than basic in a few differing areas, so it was possible that either of them could have patched up that injury, and the young man had no other cause to visit the hospital.

That both were perfectly fine (apart from the memory loss and severe malnutrition), and that both had some idea of how to be useful in a medical situation, saw both of them being put to work in the hospital once they'd been checked over, given a chance to wash, and been fed a meal of – annoyingly enough – instant ramen.

They both proved their skill in tending to injuries. Washing the wound, applying disinfectant, wrapping, occasionally sewing stitches if the wound was bad enough. To the surprise of many, the pair also turned out to be very helpful in the maternity and paediatrics wards.

Babies didn't wait for natural disasters, and eighteen children had already been born in the month since the mess with the Kyuubi. More than three dozen children had also been orphaned by it, with more being found and brought in every day, and they were being monitored by the hospital until the orphanages could be re-built to house the young ones.

They'd been working in the hospital, nameless, for five hours before anybody could spare time for them. After all, they just couldn't remember who they were. It wasn't like they were injured.

"I'm Yamanaka Inoichi," the tall blonde man informed the nameless duo once he'd gotten them sitting down in a private room. "And I _am_ going to find out who you are."

For some reason, that sounded more ominous than comforting.

Being mind-walked was surprisingly painless, though Inoichi frowned each time he removed his own psyche from their heads.

"It is very frustrating for me that I almost couldn't find your names, and that I truly could not find any memories of your pasts," he informed them gravely. "I am going to recommend to the Hokage that you both be kept under surveillance for a _long_ time, in case someone from another village tries to contact either one of you. For now, I can tell you that your names are Himura Kenshin and Higurashi Kagome," he said, making sure that they clearly understood which of them was attached to which name before he stood, bid them good day, and left.

"Kagome," Kenshin said softly, and smiled at her when she turned to look at him. "It is good to be introduced to you properly at last."

Kagome smiled back shyly. "It is good to have a name," she agreed. "Kenshin," she added, knowing that, between them, acknowledging that they _did_ have names, that they finally had a name to address the other with, it was something significant. Something they had been missing for some time.

"Kagome," Kenshin repeated, and gently took one of her hands in his. "Will you marry me?" he asked.

Kagome's eyes widened in shock, before she smiled back. They had, after all, gotten through being trapped together for quite some time and with absolutely no privacy except to turn their backs at the needed times. They'd had nothing to do down there but talk. To try to figure out what they could remember, to discuss what they wanted to do with their futures when – they had refused to think 'if' – they were rescued.

"I will," she agreed.

With that decided, the pair returned to the children's wards. There were a lot of babies that needed to be fed and changed, and a lot of older children who needed to be comforted as their wounds were seen to.

~oOo~

The Hokage met Kenshin and Kagome when he came by the hospital to perform a personal check-up on how everybody was doing. He particularly lingered in the post-natal part of the maternity ward, and just stared down at a blonde infant with a sad expression on his face. He was standing there, looking at the babe, when Kenshin and Kagome stopped in.

For some reason that they couldn't comprehend, no one else wanted to spend even so much as ten seconds together in the same room as the adorable little guy, and so they'd taken it upon themselves to make sure he was cared for.

"Thank you," the Hokage said as he watched Kenshin remove the soiled nappy and bathe the child while Kagome got his bottle ready.

The pair looked at the old man curiously.

"Young Naruto... no one else is willing to treat him kindly. Thank you, for caring for him," the Hokage elaborated.

They both shrugged.

"He's a child," Kenshin said. "Children should be cared for."

"And he's such a _cute_ baby," Kagome added with a fond smile as she took the boy from Kenshin and, even with the kid only wrapped in a towel for now – she'd dress him once she'd burped him – settled in to feed him.

"May I know your names?" the Hokage asked.

Kenshin smiled happily. "We are pleased to be able to say that you can!" he answered. "I am Himura Kenshin, and this wonderful lady is Higurashi Kagome, though she has agreed to become Himura Kagome, my wife."

"Ah," the Hokage said, eyebrows raising as he recognised those names. He'd received Inoichi's report on these two. Amnesia. "Well, congratulations then. Hmm. I don't suppose you would also be interested in becoming parents soon?" he suggested, only allowing himself to be just a very little bit hopeful. "Naruto is an orphan, after all, and as you have already noted, no one else wants to care for him."

"So, Naruto is his name, is it?" Kenshin asked as he moved to stand by Kagome and watch the baby drain his bottle. "It is a most curious one."

"Written with the kanji for 'maelstrom'," the Hokage explained with a fond, if slightly despairing, shake of his head.

Kagome looked up at Kenshin, who was himself looking down at Naruto. They did both love children, and both had become particularly attached to this little one. It was true that they weren't even married yet, but...

"I want to know why," Kagome insisted suddenly, startling both of the men.

"Why?" the Hokage repeated, curious. "Why what?"

"Why the other people here don't like Naruto, and why you're so concerned about his welfare," Kagome clarified. "Parents need to know as many of the important secrets about their children as possible, so that when the child is old enough to be told them, we can."

Kenshin smiled at Kagome before he turned an expression full of resolve to the Hokage. He agreed with Kagome. They'd take the boy in, but they wanted to know all the details, for Naruto's sake.

The Hokage looked between the two of them, then looked down at Naruto and nodded tiredly.

"This room isn't secure enough for that conversation though," he informed them. "I'd like you both to come to my office tomorrow, at noon. We can discuss the whole matter then, as well as deal with the paperwork that you will need. Including that marriage licence, perhaps?"

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Kenshin answered, and bowed to the old man.

"Yes," Kagome agreed. "Thank you."

~oOo~

"I think, first things first, let's get you two married," the Hokage said with a smile once Kagome and Kenshin were seated in his office. "And officially citizens of Konoha, hmm? Since we only have your names, and no other records, we'll have to make you up those sorts of papers from scratch. I'll find a plot of land for you both as well. Houses that are undamaged are few and far-between right now, so I'm afraid you'll most likely be building your home, rather than moving into it."

"That is fine," Kenshin assured the old man.

"We're not afraid of a bit of hard work," Kagome agreed. "Or too concerned over poor living conditions," she added, acknowledging that they were only recently rescued from being trapped underground without the basic fascilities.

The Hokage nodded, and they worked their way through the pile of paperwork that was required for the couple to be married citizens who owned land in Konoha. The land the Hokage assigned them to build their new home was the plot that had previously been the house and home of Naruto's mother. And he told them so.

"There might be some of her possessions surviving there," the Hokage confided. "Kushina and her husband were both rather good at the sealing arts, so there's no telling what might have survived, even if the house itself didn't."

"It will be good for the boy to have a connection with his true heritage," Kenshin agreed thoughtfully. "I hope there is something there that we can give him."

"Hokage-sama, are you ready to tell us now about our son?" Kagome asked, aware, just as Kenshin had been, that Naruto's name had been very deliberately left out of the conversation until now, however much he was alluded to.

The Hokage rose from his chair and went to a picture that was hanging on his wall. Behind the picture was a safe, and from within the safe he removed a scroll.

"To speak of it is punishable by death," he informed them solemnly as he set the scroll down on his desk. "Even in my own office, I will not risk these matters being overheard."

The new husband and wife both nodded in understanding, and Kenshin reached for the scroll. Kagome leant over his shoulder to read as he did.

At exactly the same time, both of their heads snapped up to stare at the picture of the Fourth Hokage that hung on the wall behind where the Third was sitting.

"The child will be much safer with our name," Kenshin said at last. "Both the names of his mother and his father are too famous, and to hide the worth of his mother's family to protect him would be to dishonour them."

The Third Hokage nodded in agreement. "It could have been done though, they were secretive enough, and it was my initial plan, but you're quite right," he answered. "The boy will be much safer with the two of you, and much better cared for as well. You will, of course, receive a purse for his care every month, from the accounts of his parents, until you are satisfied that you can sustain yourselves. The rest will be his when he is old enough to be trusted not to spend it _all_ on sweeties."

Smiles and soft chuckles were shared around the room at that, and the scroll was rolled up and put away once more, safe.

"There is also this," the Hokage said as he turned back from the hidden safe, another scroll in his hands. "Almost any shinobi expecting a child will suddenly be possessed by a fierce desire to record the processes of their techniques, so that their children can learn even if they die before they can pass them on themselves. This was put together for your son, by his parents. The seal prevents it from being opened by anybody who is not related by blood."

Kagome and Kenshin both nodded in understanding. These techniques were not for them. These techniques were for Naruto. They were only just trusted, and they would be under watch for some time, just in case, but this scroll was for Naruto, and it was safe to give it to them because they could not open it.

"There is one other thing," the Hokage said, and rose from behind his desk for a third time. A sheathed sword and a quiver of arrows were brought out from a simple cupboard against the wall by the door. "The shinobi who found both of you returned to the site where you had been trapped, just in case there were any others. There weren't, but he found these, along with a broken bow. I believe they are yours, and your new son, as you have noted already, will need to be protected. I would prefer you not use deadly force on the people of this village. That is my duty alone to exercise. If you remember the skills to use these, however, or if only your bodies do, then I will see about enlisting you both as my shinobi, and you will be able to earn an income that way."

Kenshin reached for the sword at the same time as Kagome reached for the arrows. Neither knew why, but they knew that these things were _theirs_, and that they would be well able to wield them in defence of their new son, as well as any other children they had.

They'd just have to... re-learn how.

~oOo~

A young man in the black-and-white uniform of the AnBu, with white hair sticking up over the top of his porcelain dog-mask, supervised as Himura Kagome set up targets at the other end of the yard while Himura Kenshin cleaned his sword. Himura Naruto was being gently rocked in a cradle by Kenshin as he lightly tapped one side with his foot while he worked.

His assignment was one of Village Security. The family were being watched because even _they_ didn't know if they had been sent as spies, and actually so far they rather liked Konoha, even if it was something of a wreck still. It also said something about them that the first thing they'd done when they'd been presented with the slice of property that the Hokage had given them was to separate, and return half an hour later – Kagome with a tent, and Kenshin with Naruto and a few important baby-things. Like the cradle the child was currently occupying.

The second thing they'd done, they were in the process of doing.

"Alright," Kagome declared with a pleased smile. The last target was ready. She had only been given her quiver by the Hokage, but on their way to the property, she'd somehow acquired a new bow to replace her old, broken one. It was not a small bow, either. A shinobi might use a subtle little crossbow if they needed to, but what Kagome had was a full-on, almost-as-long-as-she-was-tall, yumi.

Between the two different samurai weapons that the couple were apparently comfortable with, the young AnBu suspected that they had come from the Land of Iron, a land that was famed for its neutrality, and which all of the shinobi nations had long ago agreed to never make war upon. The Land of Iron didn't have shinobi. At all. They weren't defenceless, far from it, they had a strong military presence, but they were samurai, not shinobi.

If this couple was from the Land of Iron, then it was most likely that they had truly been innocent by-standers, probably just passing through, perhaps part of a trade caravan or similar.

Then power flared, pink at the tip of Kagome's arrow and she let it fly. It hit the centre of the first target she had set up, but she didn't notice. She'd already knocked and fired two more arrows, the tips flaring pink before she released them. The young woman wasn't even giving herself time to aim as she knocked arrow after arrow, each arrowhead leaving behind an after-image of pink power in the air behind them as they flew.

Each target smoking from the bull's-eye where the arrow had buried itself.

"Your mother will teach you how to do that when you get older, that she will," Kenshin informed his little blonde son with a smile, one that was clearly very proud of his young wife, even as his violet eyes reflected a wonder that showed he'd had no idea that she could do that.

Kagome released a slow, loud breath as she looked back, wide-eyed, at all the perfect shots she'd made in each of the target's she'd set up, then she blinked and smiled over her shoulder at Kenshin.

"He's not going to be interested in learning the bow," she declared easily, a smile on her face. She collected up her arrows and walked back to the edge of the yard to sit down by her husband and son. "He's going to be far more impressed with his father's sword."

"We don't even know for sure yet if I'm any good with it," Kenshin reminded her.

Kagome half-nodded in allowance.

"Besides," Kenshin continued, and looked down at the sword that was across his lap, the cleaning kit on his other side. "It looks as though this sword is not designed for killing my enemies."

Kagome looked over her husband's shoulder at the sword in his lap, and blinked in surprise.

The young AnBu also leant forward a little to have a better look at the blade.

The sharp edge was on the wrong side.

The sword had clearly been used a bit though. It had tiny little nicks up and down its length. None held the scent of blood, and there was no tallow on the blade, as other blades often accumulated as they were used, but the sword _had_ seen use, even if it had never drawn blood.

"Well, then we don't have to worry about you damaging the blade on the training posts," Kagome decided after a moment.

Kenshin blinked in surprise, then smiled. "You are quite right," he agreed, and stood, leaving their son to be minded by Kagome as he replaced his sword in its sheath and he took a stance in front of the training post, wrapped all up in straw rope.

His eyes were wide as he turned back to Kagome a few moments later, all the rope from waist-level and up around the post was broken and dust on the ground.

Kagome's eyes were wide too as she stared at the destruction her husband had just delivered to the innocent training post.

"Definitely be much more impressed with his father's sword," she said firmly, a smile slowly creeping onto her face.

Kenshin laughed, the shock easing in the face of his wife's admiration.

The young AnBu was wide-eyed behind his mask, and swallowed tightly. He hadn't even seen the man move, and being able to keep up with chakra enhanced speeds was something he had long been trained for. The man was _fast_.

Fast, and deadly.

They both were.

In his office, the Hokage nodded to himself in satisfaction, and cancelled the surveillance technique he was using, _tōgemane no jutsu_, that allowed him to watch the goings-on around Naruto in his crystal ball. Yes, this couple would be good protectors for Naruto as he grew.

~oOo~

For two years, the Himura family were under watch, just in case some unknown contact from beyond the village came looking for them. For those two years, it wasn't possible for the Himuras to apply to become shinobi, but that was fine with the couple as they had rather a lot of learning to catch up on if they wanted to take up such positions. Their only battle skills were with the yumi, for Kagome, and the katana, for Kenshin, and neither one of them knew any of the chakra-based techniques of the shinobi.

This fact was something which furthered the idea that the couple had probably originated from the Land of Iron before their memory loss. Except that the Hokage had sent a message to the leader of the Land of Iron, asking if he had records of these two, which he did not. Neither did their allies have any people missing who matched the description of the Himuras, and there had been some thought given to Himura having come from there, given his skill with the sword and how famed the 'Seven Swordsmen of the Mist' were. But no, that too was a dead end, as were the Fire Daimyo's census records. He had no records of anyone by the names of Himura or Higurashi anywhere.

It seemed that they had come out of nowhere.

They were going places now though, and doing a lot of good in the village. The Hokage had assigned them Mitarashi Anko to teach them about chakra. The girl had been left hurt by Orochimaru, one of the Hokage's old students, and her former master. If left to the not-so-tender mercies of the village, the girl could well have grown twisted, something that had already started in the time between the time Orochimaru had left and the Kyuubi had attacked.

Kagome and Kenshin had both been kind to her though, and valued the knowledge that she could share with them. And make no mistake, she could share a _lot_ of knowledge. Orochimaru was many things, a bad teacher was not one of them. Anko had learned a lot in the time she had been apprenticed to him, and the Himuras had been willing, respectful, and gracious students.

Especially as they were at least half-a-dozen years older than their teacher.

The value that the pair placed in Anko and her teachings did good things for the girl's self-esteem, which had taken a severe beating when her master had used, discarded, and deserted her when he was driven from the village. Kagome teaching the girl how to cook for herself had also been a good thing.

But now the pair, with Naruto between them and Anko beside them, were standing before the Hokage, in a private training ground beneath the Hokage Tower. Today, the couple were going to be tested by him to see if they were up to the standard the old man set as the minimum for his shinobi to enter the ranks of genin.

Kagome's skill with her yumi, and Kenshin's skill with his sword, these things were not in doubt. It was a matter of if they could use the more common weapons of the shinobi.

"We accidentally came up with something a bit strange, Hokage-sama," Anko admitted when they moved on to test the chakra-based techniques.

"Oh?" the Hokage asked, curious.

"Chakra's the combination of spiritual and physical energy, and that combination has to be balanced. Kagome-san has a _lot_ of spiritual energy but not as much physical energy, and Kenshin-san has it the other way around," Anko explained. "Simple techniques, and chakra control exercises, these they can do on their own. If it's a bigger technique though..."

Kagome and Kenshin smiled, and Kenshin took over the explanation.

"For a more demanding technique, Kagome and I have found that we can combine my physical energies with her spiritual energies, and perform the single jutsu together to greater effect, with less drain," the red-head elaborated.

"Hm, well, that's very interesting, but I should hope that you will both be working to increase your chakra reserves, rather than relying on the presence of each other for the more demanding techniques. It's against policy for people who are in any sort of romantic relationship to be on a team together, if it can possibly be helped," the Hokage replied thoughtfully.

The Himuras nodded in solemn understanding. Besides, if they had been on a team together, and their team was sent on a mission out of the village, neither of them would be there for Naruto, and they were _not_ willing to leave the child completely on his own for the length of a mission.

At the end of the day, the Hokage was satisfied that the Himuras were up to standard for shinobi of Konoha, and put them each on teams with a few of his most reliable shinobi.

Depending on their record by the time the chuunin exam was next hosted in Konoha, he would probably see them promoted, but that would be a couple of years away still.

~oOo~

Kagome and Kenshin both worked hard as shinobi of the Leaf. The Hokage was very considerate to make sure one of them was always in the village for their son – and the small business that they had set up in the two years they had been in Konoha before they'd become shinobi: a little apothecary.

Kagome had a bit of a green thumb, which Anko attributed to her high levels of spiritual energy, and with little Naruto's help, she grew the plants that her husband prepared, since he was better at doing that without sneezing once he'd gotten them to a fine powder. They weren't the best and biggest apothecary, not by a long shot, but they had a good enough selection, and they knew about which of their small selection was best for whatever the customer was having a problem with.

The trouble was, after the Kyuubi, and the many slow recoveries – some injuries had taken a few months, others had needed much more prolonged treatment, followed by physical therapy to restore the individual to even a civilian level of activity – many of the teams had needed to be completely restructured. It was a good thing for inserting the Himuras into the roster without saddling them with children fresh from the Academy. It was a problem because it meant that the teams all needed to spend time getting used to each other, settling into new cells, when Konoha needed active, ready teams to go on missions.

At least all the 'team building exercises' – which included numerous D-ranked missions around the village – saw Konoha looking as though it had never suffered the Kyuubi attack by the time the chuunin exams were due to be held there. The re-building had gone _very_ well.

The first part of the exam was proctored by Hyuuga Hizashi, the twin brother to the head of that clan, and it was a paper test. Anybody who he and his fellow branch-members of the Hyuuga clan who were in the room – with their byakugan eyes all active – anyone who they caught cheating would be immediately ejected from the exam. Anybody who got less than six answers correct would be disqualified. Anybody who couldn't handle the pressure would be permitted to leave. But if any member of a team was ejected, then they would be taking their team-mates with them.

Along with six other teams, both Kagome's and Kenshin's managed to survive that first stage of the exam.

The second part of the exam was proctored by Aburame Shibi, and required the teams to carry two scrolls through an obstacle course. Except that they were only given one of the two scrolls they required, and the other genin teams counted as part of the obstacles. Thankfully, they were using one of the calmer training grounds for this exam. This natural safeness of the training ground was countered by the fact that it had been loaded with all sorts of traps. Pit traps, trip wires, even bear traps. If there was a sneaky way of stopping your quarry, then it had been laid out over some part of the training ground. They had five days to navigate said course, and not one second more.

Only three teams made it through to the third round, and one of those teams almost hadn't. They'd had to carry one of their team-mates into the building that was the 'end' of the obstacle course. It was lucky for them that their team-mate had passed out from pain and blood-loss _after_ they'd crossed the threshold. A fourth team had also succeeded in bringing two scrolls to the building, but they were carrying an unconscious team-mate in addition to being five minutes late, so they didn't pass.

Better luck next time.

The remaining nine would meet in single combat in the stadium of Konohagakure, where a tournament would be held, and their individual skills could be assessed, to see if they were worthy of promotion.

This tournament would not take place for a month yet, however, to allow for foreign dignitaries to come and see the shinobi on display – and they were on display. If those hoping for promotion made a good show of it, then it was more likely that their village would get more business.


	2. Chapter 2

Anko had agreed to babysit Naruto during the third stage of the exam. Of course, they'd both be present in the stadium to watch. No way was four-year-old Naruto going to miss out on watching his parents kick everybody's butts in the chuunin exam, and Anko was actually rather interested in seeing how the couple had come along since her basic training those few years ago. She didn't even mind babysitting Naruto. He was a cute little gaki.

Kagome was the first one to have to battle an opponent in the arena below, and interestingly enough, according to the line-up, Kenshin would be going last. He'd actually gotten the short straw, having to fight twice in the first round, as there was an odd number of contestants – and he'd be fighting his two fights back-to-back. Well, that was assuming that he won the first fight, which both Naruto and Anko were doing.

Kagome's opponent was from the Hidden Mist village, and he wore a ninjato at his side. He was, in fact, very much a 'traditional' looking sort of ninja, as far as ninja of the Elemental Continent went anyway. Straight trousers bound from the calf down with reinforced bandages, a close-fitting shirt, pouches for small weapons and the like, and his village symbol on a metal plate that he wore across his forehead.

Kagome herself was _not_ so traditionally 'ninja'. She preferred hakama, for all that many people thought they were difficult to move in. She had never had any trouble, and neither had her husband, who also favoured them. The sleeves of her kimono and haori had also never caused her any problems, and had even been useful over the past months as she learned how to hide weapons in her sleeves and still be able to access them easily.

The most important of her weapons, however, remained her yumi. Inspired by the summoning tattoo that Anko had described Orochimaru having on his arm, Kagome had gotten a small tattoo on the palm of one hand. A tattoo that was also a storage seal. It allowed her to carry her yumi with her everywhere without having to worry about it getting caught on branches as she tree-hopped, or becoming cumbersome when it was imperative that they travel light.

Similarly, she had a collection of storage seals on the cuff of her other sleeve, each one holding only two arrows. More than that was unwieldy in her hand, for all that she could pull her arrows more quickly from a quiver. There were just times when carrying a quiver around wasn't a good idea – and less of her arrows got broken while she was running this way as well, which was another bonus.

"Begin!" called out the proctor of the third stage of the exam, Yamanaka Inoichi, as he leapt back, out of the way of any jutsu that the two contestants might send at each other.

Slowly, the Mist shinobi drew his ninjato, relishing in the soft hiss as it left its sheath.

In contrast, Kagome had quickly unsealed her yumi and two arrows, and fired upon him. Her two arrows caught him in the shoulders, and sent him at an accelerated rate towards the trees that were in the arena for cover.

He was pinned there, bleeding from his shoulders, but still he fought through the pain to bring his hands together – he had dropped his ninjato when he was impacted – to attempt either a genjutsu or a ninjutsu.

But Kagome had been learning from her husband as well as Anko and the jounin assigned to the team she had been placed with, and he had taught her _speed_. She had raced in, scooping up her foe's ninjato along the way, and did not halt her movement until she was standing just to the right of her opponent, his blade pressed lightly against his neck.

"Winner, Himura Kagome," Yamanaka Inoichi declared.

Half an hour later, Kenshin's bouts were both over in a flash of his sword, his sword that had the blade on the wrong side, and his strikes left his opponents unconscious.

Naruto cheered loudly for his father, and proudly informed Anko that he was going to learn his father's sword-style when he was tall enough to be able to wear the sword without scraping it on the ground. The things he was currently learning with his shinai weren't quite the same.

His mother was already teaching him how to use the yumi, but with a smaller version made specially for his current height.

~oOo~

Naruto was six, and he'd been attending the Academy for a year, when his mother and father collected him from class at the end of the day with very serious expressions on their faces. Since they'd made chuunin, his dad had been taking more dangerous missions, while his mother had been teaching special classes at the Academy to the older kids.

"Son," his dad started. "There are some things that we need to tell you."

"The first of which is that we love you," his mother said, and pulled him onto her lap and wrapped her arms around him. "And nothing will _ever_ change that."

"I love you too," Naruto answered, thoroughly confused. "Is something wrong?"

"No sweetheart," Kagome assured him. "No."

Kenshin smiled. "It is just that your mother is pregnant," he said happily. "You are going to be a big brother, that you are."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "I'm gonna be a big brother?" he asked, awed by the prospect.

Kagome and Kenshin both nodded.

"Will my little brother or sister have blonde hair like me?" he pressed. "Or blue eyes? Because there's a lot of kids in the Academy who think I'm not your kid 'cause I don't look like you, even though I _am_."

"Well, that's the second thing," Kagome said, her smile turning a little bit sad. "Naruto love, we adopted you when you were a baby."

"A- adopted?" Naruto repeated, as the implications of that word sunk in. "Does... does that mean I'm not your real kid?"

"You are our son," Kenshin insisted firmly. "It is just... you are also someone else's son."

Naruto was silent for a moment as he thought about that. "Did they not want me?" he asked in a small voice.

"Oh, Naruto, no. Your other parents wanted you very much, and they loved you with all their hearts," Kagome assured her son. "But they died when the Kyuubi attacked, so even though they wanted to be here to raise you, they couldn't be. Do you understand?"

Naruto slowly nodded that yes, he understood.

"And we have decided that you are old enough now to start learning about the things that your other parents left for you," Kenshin declared.

Naruto's eyes went wide in awe all over again. "They left things for me?"

His parents smiled at him.

"That they did," Kenshin confirmed, and withdrew from his haori sleeve – where he had been hiding it – the scroll that the Hokage had given them for Naruto all those years ago. "Here you go, a scroll that, I am told, has records of how they performed their techniques. Just for you."

"Just for me?" Naruto repeated as he almost reverently accepted the scroll. He'd been the same when his mother had given him a yumi and a quiver full of arrows, all custom made to match his size.

"We don't even know what techniques are in it," Kagome admitted. "The seal on it can only be opened by you, because you're the only one blood-related to your parents. The scroll needs a little bit of your blood to open."

Kenshin pulled his sword out of his obi, sheath and all, then presented a little bit of the back, sharp edge to his son. "Just press your thumb lightly to the edge, then smooth it over the seal, okay son?"

Naruto nodded, and immediately obeyed.

While Naruto released the seal on the scroll from his parents, Kenshin cleaned away the very little bit of blood that his son had left behind on his blade. He always cleaned his sword thoroughly after it was used. It felt wrong to him that his backwards sword should have blood on it, and Kagome had agreed with him. He had decided that he likely felt this way because there had been no hint of it having ever cut a person when the Hokage returned it to him, even though it had clearly seen use despite that.

"Will you help me read it?" Naruto asked his parents as he looked back and forth between them and the scroll that was now open in his hands. "I don't know a lot of these kanji yet."

"Are you sure, Son?" Kenshin asked. "These are the techniques left to you by your parents. If we help you read it, then we'd be learning their techniques as well."

"You're my parents," Naruto declared firmly, a stubborn set to his lower lip as he stuck it out. "And these are the techniques of my parents. You _should_ know them!"

Kagome and Kenshin both laughed happily, and agreed to learn with him.

"Great! Now, what's this one?" Naruto asked, and pointed to a large symbol that was a short way in.

"That's a seal," Kagome answered, surprised. "Like the one on my hand, see?" she said, and held out her tattooed palm for her son to examine. "It's got something stored in it."

"I'll wager that is how your parents fit _all_ of their techniques into just one small scroll," Kensin added with a smile. "By storing lots of other scrolls in it. Probably bigger ones too, at that."

"Wow," Naruto breathed, and stared at the scroll in his hands again.

~oOo~

Kenshin took up an administration position in the Hokage Tower, actually working with Morino Ibiki in the Torture and Interrogation department. He sat in a corner that the captive couldn't see, and he wrote down everything so that it could be sent to analysis later. This allowed him to be in the village all the time while his wife was pregnant, just in case, and he was allowed to clock-off for the day at the same time as the Academy let out.

Kagome hadn't retired from teaching just yet, so she would walk home with Naruto from the Academy, and Kenshin would meet them at their house with any shopping they needed, as the market was between the Hokage Tower and their home.

Then they'd all go out to the yard and train together.

Some days, Naruto would have lessons in the art of the sword from his father, other days he practised his archery under his mother's watchful gaze. After dinner, in the reinforced basement beneath the house – which they had only found by accident, chance and luck when Naruto had dripped a bit of blood on the hard-packed earth of the yard (sword lessons had broken his nose that day), revealing a small seal structure and a door in the ground beneath him – the family began the lessons left to Naruto by his other parents.

Naruto didn't ask who his parents had been. He had two loving – and _living_ – parents right now, and his other parents had loved him too, enough to leave things behind for him. That was enough for him. Still, Kenshin and Kagome had explained to him that his other parents had been very _good_ ninja, and that meant that they had made a lot of enemies. This in turn meant that they didn't want any of the techniques to be attempted until they could be guaranteed no one would see them practising. Learning the theory was fine, but practical lessons had been forced to wait.

"This is a very clever thing," Kenshin said as he studied the technique outlined on the scroll in front of him again. The first technique that they would be actually learning. "And very good for you," he added to Naruto with a smile. "It will force you to _control_ the flow of your chakra, which you have so very much of and so very little control over."

Naruto blushed, but smiled up at his father. He was only young, so his chakra control was not expected to be good. His reserves of the stuff, however, were disproportionately immense.

"I've got the water-bombs!" Kagome announced as she came down into the basement with four buckets. Three of them were empty, but the fourth was filled with little round balloons that she had filled with water from the kitchen sink. She halted at the bottom of the stairs, a distant look in her eyes. "Now, why did I call them that?" she wondered softly to herself, then shook it off and continued into the room where her son and husband were waiting for her with the scroll.

"The first thing that we must do, is that we must use our chakra to create alternating currents within the water that is in the balloons," Kenshin explained. "This will cause the balloons to burst."

"We're gonna get wet!" Naruto sang with delight.

Kagome and Kenshin both laughed at their son and his enthusiasm.

"Only if we do it right," Kagome countered, and tapped the end of her son's nose fondly. "But that is why I brought down the empty buckets as well, to hopefully catch most of the water."

Many balloons sprang tiny little leaks that evening. Getting chakra to move in different directions was quite a difficult thing.

Kagome bit her lip in thought as she watched Kenshin, and the balloon in his hand that swayed slightly around in the direction of his chakra flow. She set her own hand on top of the balloon, and make her chakra swirl in a different direction. A few seconds later, the balloon burst, just as it was supposed to.

"Oro!" Kenshin exclaimed as the water splashed over his hand, his hakama, and into the bucket he'd been holding the balloon over.

Kagome just nodded to herself as her husband and son stared at the mess, and sat down with a balloon in each hand. Gently, she set her chakra to move clockwise in her left hand, and anti-clockwise in her right. Once she was certain she had that working, and before either balloon could spring a leak, she set down the balloon she had been holding her her left hand, and held the one balloon between both hands.

A few seconds later, it burst into the bucket below.

"Mother figured it out!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

Kagome shook her head. "Not quite," she corrected with a fond smile. "I'll have it figured out when I don't need two hands to do it. The instructions state very clearly that it is a technique that you should be able to do with one hand, and should be able to have one in _each_ hand."

Naruto pouted at her.

Kagome laughed. "Alright," she allowed. "I'm making progress."

Naruto nodded firmly, very proud of his mother for doing so well, so quickly. She was entirely too humble, in his opinion. Though that by no means meant she was shy at all. She had come to his defence very loudly when the occasion called for it, and it had a time or two over the years.

~oOo~

"Well Naruto?" Kagome asked as she lay back on the bed in the hospital, covered in sweat and very tired, but smiling brightly all the same. "What do you think we should call your new little brother?"

Naruto stuck out his lower lip in thought as he looked at the little child, all red skin and with a small thatch of wet, dark hair on his head, wrapped up in a thin blue blanket.

"Kokuyōseki?" he suggested, but didn't seem all that committed to the name.

"It's a bit long, I think, for such a small person," Kenshin offered gently, though certainly amused by the suggestion.

"Hmm," Naruto agreed, nodding seriously.

"Besides, once he's all dry, that hair of his might turn out to be red like his father's, so calling him 'obsidian' wouldn't work," Kagome added with a weak chuckle and a smile up at her husband.

"Well, what about your sister?" Kenshin suggested, gesturing to the pink-wrapped bundle beside the blue-wrapped one, but which was otherwise almost identical to the first. "If you're having a hard time naming your brother, perhaps you'll have better luck with your sister?"

Naruto pulled on his still-protruding lower lip. "Hime?" he offered, clearly unsure, but shook his head before either of his parents could say anything. "I think I'd better leave the naming to you," he said firmly. "I'm not good at it."

Kagome and Kenshin chuckled.

"Tomoe," Kenshin said softly as he stroked the cheek of the baby girl that was resting on his wife's chest, a distant look in his eyes. "Himura Tomoe."

"I like it," Kagome agreed.

"It's really pretty Dad," Naruto added.

"You name our new son," Kenshin suggested to Kagome.

"Shippo," she decided after a moment's thought, a moment where her eyes went as distant as Kenshin's had when he named Tomoe. "My little Shippo."

"A good name," Kenshin agreed.

~oOo~

After Shippo and Tomoe, came Rin (named by Kagome), and then Yahiko (named by Kenshin), and by the time little Yahiko was toddling, Shippo and Tomoe were entering the Academy – and Naruto was getting ready to graduate. But to skip over all that happened in between these times would be to miss some very important things that Kenshin and Kagome had done.

~oOo~

A short week after Kagome had given birth to Rin, there was a great uproar in the village. The Uchiha clan, almost in its entirety, had been slaughtered in the night.

"I am sorry for little Sasuke," Kagome said to her husband over dinner that day. "But I will not miss the clan as a whole."

Kenshin nodded in silent agreement.

"Why?" Naruto asked curiously, and somewhat confused.

"The Uchiha were not nice people," Kagome explained to her son. "And they didn't care that they weren't nice people. They never bothered to be even polite to anybody."

"And they were the bulk of the police in Konoha," Kenshin added, a shadow crossing over his features. "But they did not do their duty to the laws of the village properly."

"Oro?" Naruto asked.

"You know the way your mother and I have had some trouble in the village, because we care for you?" Kenshin reminded his son.

Naruto nodded sadly. He knew.

"Well, there are laws in place that say we should not have had that trouble, and it was the task of the police to enforce those laws," Kenshin explained.

"But they didn't," Kagome finished.

"No," Kenshin agreed. "They did not."

"Oh," Naruto said softly, and stared thoughtfully at his dinner for a moment. "I don't think I'll miss the Uchiha either," he decided. "But who will be the police now?"

Kagome and Kenshin chuckled.

"The police were only _mostly_ Uchiha," Kagome answered. "There are other shinobi who requested that posting as well. The police chief, who was also the head of the Uchiha clan, just always gave priority to the Uchiha, even if they didn't actually want a position there."

"Hm," Naruto grunted. "I don't think I like the Uchiha."

"Well, there is only one person carrying the Uchiha name left in the village," Kenshin told his son with a smile, "and I believe he is in the class below you at the Academy."

Naruto blinked. "You mean, if you hadn't taught me so much that I skipped a year when I entered, I'd be in the same class as him?"

Kagome and Kenshin both nodded, amused by the horror their son was showing at the idea of being in even the same class as a boy he didn't even know, except by the reputation of his family. They'd talk to him about prejudice before the night was out though. There was no good in hating a boy for his family, after all, especially not when his family were all dead.

~oOo~

When Kagome was pregnant with Yahiko, she had sent Kenshin out to the late market to fetch something. She'd had a sudden, inexplicable craving – and it was inexplicable because she normally could not stand the thing she had just expressed a craving for. Pickled radish spread. They had none in the house at all.

Kenshin had interrupted the kidnapping of Hyuuga Hinata on his way back from the shop, and shattered the shoulder of the arm that was holding the girl, forcing the kidnapper to release the child in his pain. Hyuuga Hiashi had arrived then, and would have himself attacked the kidnapper except that he was already on the ground, and Kenshin was talking gently to Hinata.

All that time in Torture and Interrogation had expanded Kenshin's understanding of psychology, as the T and I department also contained the various 'therapists' that the shinobi saw after a traumatising mission. He could think of only a few things that would be more traumatising for a child than to be kidnapped.

"Ah, Hyuuga-san!" Kenshin greeted with a smile when he saw the man. "I wonder if I could trouble you to take this man to see Ibiki?" he requested. "Only, I must return to my wife right now, yes I must."

"Hinata..." Hiashi started.

Kenshin smiled. "I shall escort your daughter home," he promised. "It is along my way."

"Thank you," Hiashi said, and slung the kidnapper over his shoulder, a vindictive expression on his face as he took off towards the Hokage Tower.

"Well, Hinata-chan, let's get going. I imagine that, with the way your father rushed after you, there must be more people worrying for you back home," Kenshin suggested with a kind smile.

"Th-thank you," Hinata answered softly.

Kenshin had been been nominated for the jounin position after that tidy little rescue, and upon completing a series of tests in the privacy of the AnBu training bunker, had been awarded the promotion. Konoha couldn't have a jounin who'd let their skills go, after all, and he _had_ spent quite some time doing nothing more notable for the village than successfully keeping his lunch down as he took notes while Ibiki interrogated people.

After the promotion, he was permitted to perform the same task for more delicate interrogations, as he maintained a desire to do work that would allow him to be home for dinner in the evening. He was now sitting in for interrogations that as a chuunin he hadn't has the clearance for though, and being paid a bit more.

~oOo~

Once the ordeal of giving birth to Yahiko was passed, Kagome had requested the opportunity to test for the rank of jounin, a request which was granted, but the Hokage insisted that she wait to take the tests until she was completely recovered from the pregnancy and labour. Considering that this was her third pregnancy, and her first pregnancy had been twins, Kagome recovered _very_ quickly. She was used to how things went by now.

After she'd passed the testing, the Hokage insisted that she take some time to herself. He was aware, after all, that the Himura house was now getting a bit crowded with five children living there, and as helpful as Naruto was determined to be (he was a very good big brother), there would still need to be some adjusting done.

Even (or perhaps especially) with Naruto's graduation from the Academy fast approaching.

With that in mind, Kagome and Kenshin sat down and had a good hard look at their finances. Then they bought the house next door and hired a few people to join the two houses together.

Naruto would need more room as he grew, and Tomoe and Shippo would start making noises about not wanting to share a room (with a _boy_ or _girl_ respectively) soon enough.

Tomoe had inherited her mother's shining black hair and her father's violet eyes, while Shippo was the opposite, his hair having lightened to his father's vibrant red, and he had his mother's clear hazel eyes. Rin had the same colouring as her older sister, but where Tomoe had a more delicate blend of her parent's features, the sort that would see her sought after by the sons of lords, Rin had her mother's large eyes and freckles. More a tomboy than a lady, but that was alright. Little Yahiko had all of his mother's colouring, but all of his father's bone-structure.

Kagome was convinced that _all_ of her children (and that included Naruto) would be heart-breakers when they were older. Kenshin had quietly put in an order for a sword that had its blade on the normal side, to threaten the some-day suitors of his daughters with. Kagome had laughed for five minutes solid when she learned the reason he had placed such an order with the weapon-smith, most of all because she knew it would be an empty threat. Her husband would never truly use that sword.

But the time was come for Naruto to graduate from the Academy, and the Hokage had asked if either (or indeed both) of the Himuras would be interested in taking a genin team, as they were now jounin. Not their son's though. For the same reasons that shinobi in a romantic relationship were not placed on teams together, likewise family members were only assigned together in an emergency.

Kenshin and Kagome had both agreed to take genin teams.

Unfortunately, neither of the teams they had been assigned were able to pass the second genin tests, though Naruto's team had made it. Their eldest was officially a genin. There were celebrations in the Himura household that night.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto's first C-rank mission, a mission that would take him out of the village, came two months into his time as a genin. The boy was less than trilled with all the D-rank chores-disguised-as-missions, but Kagome had been able to explain to him in her gentle way just how the D-rank missions were good for training.

Shinobi had to go undercover sometimes, so being competent at 'chores' would give them a starting point to create a 'cover'. Or just being able to work well with his team-mates, getting to know them and learning how they would respond to certain situations, and training together.

In honour of his first ever mission out of the village, Kenshin took his son's wooden sword (his second wooden sword, in fact, this one having a steel edge to it so that Naruto would have a better feel for the weight of a true sword, as well as a better idea of the damage his blade could cause. It had been preceded by a normal bokken, and the bokken preceded by a shinai) and exchanged it for a real one. The sword that he had, in fact, commissioned for the threatening of his children's some-day suitors.

"A wooden sword isn't much good against a real one," Kenshin explained softly as he presented the sword to his eldest. "And I insist that you come home to your mother and I safely."

Naruto nodded firmly, pride shining in his eyes.

"I won't let you down Dad," Naruto answered.

He hadn't either. Even though he'd returned to the village carrying both of his team-mates who had passed out from exhaustion and shock. Even though he was also carrying the scroll they had been sent to collect from on of Konoha's out-posts. Even though he came bearing the news that his sensei had ordered them on ahead of him while he held off the enemy. He still came back with his sword red with the blood of his enemies, unhurt himself, and with a determination to see his mission completed.

Naruto and his team-mates had been immediately taken to the hospital by the chuunin on duty at the gate, and another team of chuunin had been sent out to back up his sensei. They'd brought back his body instead, and Naruto's team-mates had begged to retire themselves from the shinobi forces when they woke up a week later. The Hokage granted their request.

"Naruto," the Hokage greeted when the blonde and his parents entered his office on his summons.

"Hokage-sama," the young genin answered solemnly.

"I'm afraid that you no longer have a team," the Hokage said. "Your sensei is dead, and your team-mates have both decided that they can't handle the true shinobi lifestyle. There are no other teams with openings at this time that would suit you. I am sorry."

Naruto nodded. "I understand, Hokage-sama," he replied a little thickly. "When... when will Anji-sensei's funeral be?"

"Tomorrow," the Hokage said. "What will you do after that, Naruto? Will you stay as a shinobi?"

"I will," Naruto declared, his voice soft but firm.

The Hokage nodded, and eyed the three in his office. "Perhaps if you take the rest of the year to train with your parents?" he suggested. "I can fit you in with a new team when the next Academy class graduates."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Naruto agreed, and bowed. He knew that the shinobi life wasn't always one of happy endings. He was friends with Anko, after all, and knew the work his father did with Ibiki.

"One other thing, Naruto," the Hokage requested before Naruto could think that he was being dismissed. "I believe it is time that I told you something very important, and it is for this reason that I have asked your parents to be here as well."

The time had come to tell Naruto about his burden, about the true fate of the Kyuubi that night that was now so many years ago. The boy took it remarkably well.

The Hokage didn't take it quite so well when Naruto explained that he'd been aware of the entity sealed within him for years, and had been training with him. The old man dropped his lit pipe into his lap, and was so shocked that it wasn't until his robes actually caught fire that he snapped out of it.

~oOo~

Naruto trained zealously after that, not that he hadn't before, but before his graduation from the Academy, he hadn't known about a particular technique called the _kage_ _bunshin._ It had been shown to him by Anji-sensei because he had such incredible chakra reserves, and quickly implemented by Anji-sensei as a training tool for Naruto – though in moderation only. There was no call for the bright young boy to ruin his mind with the return of the memories of a thousand clones. No call at all.

Besides, Naruto couldn't build muscle with the _kage_ _bunshin_ at all, and hardly any muscle-memory. _kage_ _bunshin_ were better for academic learning, but again, too much at once could see Naruto bleeding from his ears, eyes and nose due to the (potential) damage to his mind. Anji-sensei had actually implemented them mostly for Naruto to use to improve his chakra control.

Now Naruto used one of his _kage_ _bunshin_ to study one of the more theory-heavy scrolls left to him by his other parents, and had another studying traps and battlefield tactics, while he personally worked on his practical proficiency.

Except for when he was helping his mother with his little brothers and sisters, that is. He was dedicated to improving himself, but he wasn't about to neglect his family. After all, if he didn't have his family, then what other reason did he have for going out and risking himself?

Eventually, the day came. The next class of the Academy had graduated, and Naruto was assigned to a new team with a new sensei.

Naruto dressed carefully, as he did every morning after he'd completed his morning routine and showered. A cream under-kimono was first, followed by a darkly-coloured over-kimono (his favourite was a rusty orange-brown, though that day he chose to wear a deep forest-green one instead), and grey hakama, with his sword slipped into his obi and various seals around his cuffs for arrows. He'd gotten a storage seal tattooed to his palm just like his mother, and for the exact same reason: he kept his yumi there whenever he left the house. Finally, he tied his blonde hair back, just like his father did (his mother left hers loose when she was in Konoha, but wore it higher on her head when she had occasion to travel beyond the village walls), then it was breakfast and see-you-later's to his family before he slipped on his off-white jika-tabi in the entryway, and he was off to the Academy.

"Naruto!" Kagome called before he got too far.

Naruto turned back, and spotted his mother holding his hitae-ate. Blushing, he hurried back for that important piece of clothing. He hadn't had any reason to wear it since his sensei was killed and his team-mates retired, just training at home and not going out on missions.

Kagome smiled as she fixed the carefully dulled and bent symbol snugly around her son's neck so that it protected one of the more unprotected parts of his body. One last kiss was applied to his brow, and Tomoe and Shippo were ready for a day at the Academy as well, so they said goodbye as well, thrilled to be walking with their big brother.

Kagome would be going to the Academy also, a bit later. She had to take Rin and Yahiko to the day care first. She and Kenshin had, again, been assigned genin teams. Whether they would pass and actually _become_ genin was a matter yet to be decided.

~oOo~

"Ah, Himura-san, you have good timing," Umino Iruka greeted with a smile.

"Good morning, Umino-sempai," Naruto answered. He hadn't been in any of Iruka's classes, having just missed out on that particular privilege, but the man was a chuunin to his own genin status, so there was a little respect there for his senior shinobi.

"Iruka-sensei, who's he?" demanded one of the boys in the room. One of the new graduates.

"Everybody, this is Himura Naruto-san, and he has been a genin for a year already. He is here to be assigned new team-mates from among you, as his own are no longer serving Konoha in that capacity," Umino explained.

"Why?" questioned one of the girls, another new graduate.

Umino looked to Naruto, his gaze letting the young blonde know that answering them was completely up to him. It wasn't classified, but reasons for needing a new team weren't generally something discussed. It was a touchy subject with most shinobi, actually.

Naruto nodded slightly to the man, and turned to answer the girl. "I no longer have a team because my sensei died making sure I and my team-mates were able to reach Konoha when a mission went bad all of a sudden. When my team-mates were recovered, they realised that they couldn't handle the stress of life-and-death situations, and as they had only been genin for two months, the Hokage allowed them to retire," he explained to the room full of hopeful new graduates. "There is a six-month grace period," he continued, anticipating the next question. "A new genin may retire within six months of being registered as official genin if they find that they cannot handle the stress of the profession. They, _you_, may also be _forcibly_ retired by their jounin sensei, if that jounin can back up the assertion that they believe that a genin will not make it in the field."

Silence, tense and suddenly nervous, met his little speech. A lot of them hadn't really thought about the consequences of being ninja. They were mostly just little kids who liked being able to perform cool (if only minor at this point) jutsu.

"Thank you, Himura-san. Please, take a seat," Umino bid with a gentle smile and an appreciative nod. He didn't like scaring his cute little students unless he needed to – to get them to pay attention in history class, mostly – but they did need to know some of the realities of the profession they were currently lining themselves up for.

~oOo~

Naruto watched his parents collect teams eight and ten, and none of them acknowledged each other as they did so. They were being professional. It was something that Naruto had learned since becoming an official genin, even if he'd only been on a team for a very short time. Any emotional attachment was dangerous for a shinobi. Families, friends, loved ones, could and would be targeted. They could love strongly and freely within the safety of the village walls, but outside those walls? It was safer for everybody to be impersonal, to act as though you didn't have any family at all.

Well, unless it was an undercover assignment, but Naruto only had the theoretical knowledge for how those properly worked, no practical experience. He'd only ever done D-ranks and that one should-have-been-easy C-rank that had gone wrong, after all.

While Naruto waited for his own team's sensei to arrive, he considered the graduates that he had been placed with. The girl with the long pink hair, Haruno, was loud and love-sick. She was also pale, smelled _strongly_ of an amalgam of strawberries and flowers, and didn't seem to have any sort of muscle on her at all. She didn't even have any fat on her to convert into muscle wither. She was just too thin all over. He bet she was stupid enough to diet. On the other hand, there was the boy who was stupid enough to wear the symbol of his relatively-recently massacred clan. A symbol which essentially told every and any enemy that he was worth kidnapping if they wanted to breed him for his bloodline, or else to just rip his eyes out if they didn't have the patience for that. The last remaining Uchiha in Konoha, and however much Naruto was careful not to let prejudice inform his opinion of individuals, it looked like this kid had a gold kunai shoved up his rear.

Naruto could just spit at his luck.

Especially when his new sensei was two hours later than all the others had been to collect them. It was when his new sensei still hadn't shown up at the three-hour mark that Naruto realised who his new sensei must be, and considered things to be looking up slightly. Only slightly though. His suspicions were confirmed when a masked face topped with an almost absurd amount of gravity-defying silver hair poked through the door.

"Good afternoon, sensei," Naruto greeted politely. His words drawing Haruno's attention from the unresponsive Uchiha.

She proceeded to screech "You're late!" at the man.

"Mah, well, meet on the roof," he instructed them, and withdrew his head from the crack in the door he'd poked it through.

Naruto silently headed out after the man, and up to the roof. His new, and possibly temporary, team-mates followed after him. Haruno grumbling the whole way and Uchiha apparently sulking as he walked.

"So, tell me a bit about yourselves," the jounin requested once they were all on the roof, the two graduates sitting on the benches, Naruto standing, and the jounin leaning against the fence that surrounded the roof of the Academy.

"Ne, sensei, why don't you go first?" Haruno requested. "Show us how?"

Naruto resisted the urge to let one of his eyebrows twitch up in scepticism. This girl needed to be told how to introduce herself? Had the quality of graduates gone _down_ in the last year since he'd graduated?

"All right," the jounin allowed. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like... I don't feel like telling you ... my dreams... hmm... my hobbies... I have those," he said.

Naruto smiled a little at that. His guess was now thoroughly confirmed as to the identity of his new sensei. It was interesting that he couldn't even think of a dream though. Naruto had noticed. The man hadn't decided not to tell them, like he had with the other two, he'd genuinely not been able to think of one, and so just skipped it.

His team-mates, on the other hand, he was sure had only gotten his name from that little introduction.

"You next," Hatake Kakashi instructed, gesturing to the only girl on the team.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like..." she trailed off, blushing furiously as she looked over at Uchiha. "My dream..." Again, she trailed off, hearts in her eyes as she squealed quietly to herself and wiggled as she had her gaze firmly fixed on her fellow graduate. "My hobbies..." Okay, now it was just disturbing. Clearly, the girl was obsessed.

Hatake sighed, and gestured for Uchiha to speak up.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the boy said. "I like training, and my dream, my goal, is to kill a certain man." Not a word was mentioned of hobbies.

Naruto forced himself not to pull any sort of face at the other boy, instead just making a mental note to ask his dad if anybody had strapped this kid to the therapist's chair after the massacre.

Hatake looked up at Naruto, a hint of desperate hope shining in his single visible eye.

"I'm Himura Naruto," he supplied. "I like," he paused, smiled up at the sky for a moment, and shook his head. "My dreams... I don't think any of you deserve to know," he decided with a smirk, "and as for my hobbies... well, I have those too," he finished with a chuckle.

Hatake nodded, ever-so-minutely, in approval.

Haruno, on the other hand, berated him. "That doesn't tell us anything about you but your name!" she screeched.

Naruto shrugged.

"Well, my cute and mostly-clueless students," Hatake said, drawing their attention back to him. "I have to tell you, you're not genin yet."

"What?" Haruno demanded. "But we passed the genin exam!"

"You're graduates," Hatake agreed. "But you're not genin yet. You have to pass another test first. One that has a sixty-six percent failure rate. You will meet me for this test at five tomorrow morning in training ground seven. Also, if you don't want to throw up, then you shouldn't eat any breakfast," he instructed seriously. Then the only visible part of his face shifted in such a way that only went along with a smile. "Ja ne!" he bid them, and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"Sasuke-kun," Haruno said as soon as their sensei was gone. "Would you like to go on a date with me?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and, as neither of the graduates were paying him any attention, he hopped down off the roof, bouncing off lower roofs and then walls until he was safely on the ground. He wondered absently if he'd done anything to offend the Hokage, to be placed on a team with those two, and then decided that the old man probably hadn't ever personally interacted with them.

Umino had said, as he was reading out the team designations, that Haruno Sakura was that years 'number one kunoichi', and that Uchiha Sasuke was the 'rookie of the year'. It probably made sense, on paper, to put the two who were (statistically) at the top of the class with a genin who had some actual experience.

~oOo~

There was a knock at the front door just as Kagome was beginning to measure out portions of beef stew for dinner, and Kenshin went to see who it was that was calling on them.

"Ah, Hatake-san, welcome," Kenshin greeted with a smile. "We were just about to have dinner, and I know that my wife always makes extra. Would you care to join us?" he offered as he stepped back, inviting the man into his home.

"Ah, thank you," Hatake answered. "I don't mean to intrude."

"Nonsense!" Kagome called form the kitchen. "You're always welcome here, and we haven't seen nearly enough of you since Kenshin and I made chuunin. That was a _long_ time ago Hatake-san," she scolded lightly.

"Good evening sensei," Naruto greeted the man with a smile when he spotted the man.

"Good evening Naruto," Hatake returned. "You can call me Kakashi-sensei though, if you like. I'm sure your new team-mates will do so without permission."

Naruto cocked his head to the side as he considered that. "They'll definitely be my new team-mates?" he asked.

Hatake sighed. "That is why I decided to visit you this evening," he admitted.

"Well, you can sit at the table and talk about it," Kagome instructed as she lay another setting at the table for their guest and set a bowl of beef stew there for him.

"Thank you," Hatake said gratefully as he sat in the indicated place.

"Hello," a young voice greeted, pulling Hatake's attention across the table to where smaller children were sitting on boosters and high-chairs.

"Tomoe, Shippo, Rin, this is Hatake Kakashi-san, he is your big brother's new sensei," Kenshin explained to the children. "Hatake-san, the rest of our family. The twins Tomoe and Shippo, Rin, and Yahiko, our youngest. He's walking, but not talking yet."

"Pleased to meet you all," Hatake said politely as he nodded to them across the table.

Naruto, Kenshin and Kagome all took their seats at the table, Kagome beside little Yahiko to feed him, and Kenshin helped Rin with her meal when she needed it, while the twins were quite capable now of taking care of themselves. Naruto sat next to his sensei.

"So... what's going to happen Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked once everybody had had the chance to take the edge off their hunger. "Because I'm already a full genin, and Haruno and Uchiha are only graduates..."

Hatake nodded. "That is why I came to visit you this evening Naruto," he agreed. "You have the option of sitting out the test tomorrow, and I will only test them, but it would be perhaps better for team dynamics if you also participated as though you were only a graduate as well, and did not remind them that you aren't in the same situation as them. My test is one that has two parts, generally, two chances for the team to pass, and the Council is very keen on my taking the young Uchiha as my student," he explained.

"Because of your sharingan," Naruto observed.

Hatake huffed out a soft chuckle. "Most young genin don't know that," he said.

Naruto shrugged. "Most genin don't have parents who work in the Torture and Interrogation department, and who bring back the latest Bingo Book for their children's extra homework," he pointed out with a hint of a smile.

Kenshin laughed at that, and reached over to ruffle the loose hair that hung around his son's face, just like his own hair style.

"Naruto wouldn't know anything about you, Hatake-san, if Kenshin didn't bring that book home," Kagome said softly. "He really should have known you as an older brother."

Hatake winced, just a tiny bit. "I was very busy," he defended. "Um, you were both given teams as well, weren't you? How did that go?"

"I will be guiding Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba in their journeys as genin for at least the next six months," Kagome answered.

"I also will be addressed as 'sensei'," Kenshin agreed with a smile. "By the children of Yamanaka-san, Nara-san, and Akimichi-san."

"You're the only one who hasn't tested their genin team yet, Hatake-san," Kagome said, again reprimanding him lightly.

"I did have to make sure of some things with Naruto-kun first," Hatake pointed out. "Well, Naruto-kun?"

"If they ask for my help, then I'll participate in the test," Naruto decided. "You can't send me packing if the team fails though, Kakashi-sensei. I've been an official, registered genin for a year. But if the other two manage to pass, I suppose it could be bad if I hadn't proven myself to them at the same time. If they've forgotten already, then I won't say anything about my being their sempai until after the test, but don't expect me to take any trash-talk from them," he cautioned with a cheeky smile.

Hatake laughed, and reached out to pat the young genin on the head, just as Kenshin had done moments before. "Of course not," he agreed.

"And don't expect me to skip breakfast tomorrow either," Naruto added firmly.

Behind his mask, Hatake smiled at the young man.

~oOo~

Naruto's previous sensei, as well as his parents, were firm believers in the maxim "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise", and Naruto was used to getting up and being ready to leave the house to start his day at about the same time as the sky turned that pale, pre-dawn grey. It was light out, but the sun wasn't up yet.

So Naruto was the only member of his team not groaning like a zombie when they met at the designated training ground. However, he'd had to skip his usual morning routine, only showering before he dressed – and for the first time since his previous team was retired, Naruto added his dull-black arm- and shin-guards to his attire – then he ate his breakfast, and left his home. Normally, he did his exercises in only a pair of loose-fitting trousers, that were none-the-less still more fitted than his hakama. Being fully dressed, he couldn't perform all the same exercises. His sleeves would get in the way for some, and the volume of the hakama would be bothersome for others.

Instead, Naruto settled in to practising some of the standard kata his father had taught him. An empty-handed fighting technique that was part of the 'kenpo' that he had been instructed in along with the sword lessons.

The Himura clan, and a clan was what they had become in recent years with there now being four children of blood to Himura Kenshin and Kagome, was peculiarly samurai in their fighting style and convictions, even though they lived in a village of shinobi. The father taught swordsmanship, the mother how to use the yumi, kimono and hakama were the preferred dress rather than the closely fitting clothes preferred by their shinobi neighbours and co-workers. And as intensely as the family trained their bodies, they also made sure to train their minds with philosophical discussions (a favourite), as well as sharing talks on the theories of chakra and various sorts of jutsu.

"Baka," Haruno growled at him through her sleep-deprived fog as she watched Naruto progress through his katas. "What are you doing? You'll never be cooler than Sasuke-kun."

"I could care less," Naruto said dismissively, "about measuring myself against an _Uchiha_."

"The Uchiha clan boasts some of the the best shinobi in Konoha history!" Haruno snapped at Naruto, then turned to her other team-mate with stars in her eyes. "Right, Sasuke-kun?"

The boy nodded, though would likely have ignored the girl altogether if it hadn't been a question about how great his family was.

"There is no 'Uchiha clan'," Naruto scoffed. "Not any more. Now, there is one little graduate and a few lines in a history book."

His new team-mates didn't like to hear him say that very much. Still, they were too tired to do more just then than to sit and impotently fume at him. After all, he was also right.


	4. Chapter 4

Hatake was even later than he had been the previous day. Previously, they had waited only three hours. That morning, when they had been told to assemble at five, he did not arrive until it was half-past ten. Naruto personally resolved to seek out the weapon-smith his father patronised, and request a wrong-sided sword like his father's. He wasn't certain of his patience with his new team, and had no desire to risk being labelled a nuke-nin because he could not fight the desire to practice his technique on them.

The sword-style his father had taught him killed with almost certainty when performed with a normal blade. It was safe only with bamboo swords, wooden blades, or the reversed blade that his father carried everywhere. He carried a normal blade. His last practice sword had been set in pride of place on the wall of his bedroom, beneath its predecessors.

And Hatake had just asked that they come at him with intent to kill.

Naruto closed his eyes as he considered that instruction, settling into the mind-set his father had instructed him in the creation of. It was not a nice thing, to kill. It created a weight on a person's soul that it had never been meant to bear. People were not _supposed_ to kill one another. They were the only creatures on earth that killed their own kind on such a scale, so indiscriminately, and for such fleeting reasons.

"So, my son, you must decide for yourself why you will wield the sword," Kenshin's voice echoed through Naruto's mind. "Every day, this is a decision that you must make again, because every day you will take that sword and place it at your hip. You cannot run, not when you have slain so many, as I know that I have done, though I do not now remember doing it. You can only live and die, and all of that must be by the sword once you have taken it up."

"Will you kill?" Kagome's voice asked him in that gentle way of hers. "Will you commit murder, my son? That is what we are, we are murderers. We have committed the greatest sin, we have taken lives. Your father and I, we don't do that any more. Your father carries only a sword that will not kill. I never fire my arrow where it will do more than wound. Every life is precious to someone. Can you take that from them?"

He had, before, on his first C-rank mission. The enemy had gotten past Anji-sensei, and without even thinking about it, Naruto had drawn the new katana given to him by his father, and cut down the men who would have killed his team-mates. He had, until the moment he saw their blood pooling under their warm corpses, forgotten that he now carried a live blade, instead of his wooden one.

He had not set his sword aside since that day, and had spoke with both of his parents at great length on the matters of life and death, though never when his younger siblings could hear.

Haruno and Uchiha had already disappeared, hiding in the foliage, following the 'protocol' that they had learned in the Academy – ninja attack from the shadows. It was the first principle of their profession, and so often, it was the first one forgotten. There were too many flashy ninjutsu out there for most shinobi to want to stay in the shadows once first contact had been made.

"Sensei, can you perform a solid _bunshin_ technique?" Naruto asked softly. "I wish to be certain that 'approaching you with intent to kill' will not actually mean your death. I know that you are a jounin, Sensei, but you should know something of the reputation of the Himura sword-style."

"Ah," Hatake agreed, and created a _mizu_ _bunshin._ "Hajime," he commanded.

Naruto shifted into the stance taught to him by his father, and in a flash he was on the other side of a dissolving body of water, the _bunshin_ dispelled.

Hatake coughed in shock, and created a _kage_ _bunshin_. This one raised the hitae-ate that hid his transplanted sharingan eye, and Hatake himself did the same.

"Again, Naruto," he requested.

Naruto turned, his sword still out, and lashed it through the _bunshin_ until the impact had caught up with the chakra system of the construct, and it too disappeared, though in a cloud of smoke rather than a fall of water.

Hatake whistled lowly, impressed. He was a jounin after all, and had been generally very well able to keep up with incredibly fast attacks before. Especially when he had been in AnBu. Okay, he'd had trouble with Himura Kenshin's speed, and nobody had a patch on the Yellow Flash, but Naruto was not his father. Either of them.

Hatake spared a moment to wonder, and worry, if he was slowing down, if he might be losing his edge. He shook his head. Who was he kidding? He'd just been essentially killed, twice in as many minutes, by a _genin_. He about as much edge as a sake dish – and that was unacceptable. He had work to do.

Unfortunately, he also had genin to worry about, because even if the team failed the test, the Council would still try and force him to take Uchiha, and he'd be keeping Himura either way because the boy was an already registered genin that he'd been assigned. Oh yes, he had a lot of work to do, and that not even counting the possibility of being saddled with Haruno as well.

~oOo~

For the winning the title of 'most pathetic on the team', Haruno had been strapped to a log in a clearing that also contained the memorial stone. Sasuke was pinned to the ground, with Hatake sitting on him.

"Naruto-kun, will you please tell the class exactly what your cute little kohai did wrong?" Hatake requested shortly. He had been no more impressed with the graduates than Naruto had been, and Hatake hadn't had the five-and-a-half hours with them that Naruto had endured that morning before the jounin had arrived.

"They thought as individuals," Naruto answered promptly.

"What?" Haruno demanded, confused.

"Genin aren't anywhere _near_ strong enough to take on an unknown opponent by themselves. Ever," Naruto explained shortly. "Genin are put into _squads_ so that their extremely minor individual strengths can be combined through _teamwork_ into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts."

"You managed," Uchiha growled out from where his face was still mostly pressed into the dirt.

"A _bunshin_ is not the same as the real thing," Naruto dismissed with a shake of his head.

"Also, Naruto-kun is very, _very_ fast," Hatake explained pleasantly. "He gets it from his father. I was much more interested in seeing how fast Naruto-kun was, than in defending myself from those two attacks of his right at the beginning." He was lying through his teeth, but they didn't need to know that. "The point remains though, that you two completely missed the point of this test: _teamwork_."

"Both of you saw that I was somewhat competent, and that my speed had taken Kakashi-sensei by surprise already. Neither of you asked me to help you get the bells," Naruto explained with a scowl on his face. "Haruno, you didn't ask me because then your precious Uchiha would have been without a bell. Uchiha, you didn't ask me because you thought so damn highly of yourself that you really believed you could take on Kakashi-sensei on your own, that working with either Haruno or myself would only hinder you."

"If I have my way, you'll both be back in the Academy for the next 'review' year," Hatake informed the graduates.

"But... teamwork... there were only two bells, and three of us!" Haruno objected. "Someone was always going to fail the test and be sent back to the Academy! Group conflict..."

"I purposely pitted you against each other," Hatake agreed. "I wanted to see if you could overcome that. A genin should put the _squad_ ahead of _themselves_. Genin should have a natural feel for teamwork, but it never even crossed your minds! But let's have an example of why teamwork is so important," he suggested, and pulled out a kunai. That kunai was promptly slid under Uchiha's chin. "Naruto-kun, kill Sakura, or I'll kill Sasuke."

Naruto slid out his sword slowly, and very deliberately thought about that – out loud.

"Haruno is a fangirl. As she is, she's useless except to make noise or figure out things on paper. It would be no particular loss to me if she died. I suspect that Uchiha would actually be grateful if I did, one less fangirl stalking him at all hours. I can't be sure of that though, and even then, if I killed Haruno, you could still kill Uchiha, and I'd be left with no team-mates at all. In any hostage situation, the primary objective of any mission becomes: get your team back to Kohoha. All things relative, my choice is to cut off your hand," Naruto explained, then smirked. "Sensei," he added respectfully.

He'd been enjoying the way his two new team-mates had slowly grown paler and paler from the moment Hatake ordered Naruto to kill Haruno, all through Naruto's own speech, up until the point where Naruto had suddenly moved and slid his sword beneath Hatake's wrist – the one connected to the hand holding the kunai to Uchiha's neck – and through to his crotch. An added, imminent threat.

The area was rather unprotected thanks to Hatake's seat on top of Uchiha, it was opportunistic. And funny.

Hatake chuckled, and messed the front of Naruto's hair in approval with his free hand before he put his kunai away.

Naruto also replaced his blade.

"That is what happens on missions," Hatake informed the graduates with a sigh as he stood, getting off the lumpy, uncomfortable seat that was Uchiha's back. He moved to stand in front of the Memorial Stone. "Every mission, your life is on the line, and this stone... this stone has the names of all the ninja who are honoured as heroes by our village. Each and every one of them was killed in action. The names of my closest friends are on this stone."

That managed to hit home with the graduates.

Then he gave the graduates their second chance.

~oOo~

Naruto was content to eat the lunch given to him – Hatake wasn't a bad cook, if he'd made these bentos himself – and let Uchiha and Haruno figure out exactly what the second chance _was_ that they had been given.

He was surprised, but they did, and to spare Uchiha from having to feed one of his fangirls, he offered his own lunch.

"I ate breakfast, and I _know_ you two didn't," he said, brushing off any queries when they both looked at him questioningly. "I'd rather have thrown up than attempted any sort of test hungry," he added as he fed Haruno some of his egg-roll.

Haruno had time to swallow before Hatake made a big, dramatic entrance, which in turn inspired big, dramatic declarations from the graduates, to which Naruto added his two-cents, for solidarity.

Hatake's forbidding aura dissipated as he hummed in amusement, his features rearranging beneath his mask and hitae-ate into a pleased expression.

"You pass," he informed them, the angry roar or moments before completely absent.

"Wh-what?" Haruno asked, dumbfounded.

"You. Pass," Hatake repeated simply.

"How'd we pass?" Haruno pressed.

"You're the first squad that didn't just blindly obey everything I said, the first squad to not fall into _every_ trap. A ninja must see through deception, and be able to think for themselves. Those who disobey orders may be looked down upon, but those who abandon their team-mates? They are reviled for the rest of their lives."

"So... Naruto won't be sent back to the Academy for feeding me?" Haruno asked, relief clear in the way she slumped in her bindings.

"No. But even if I wanted to, I couldn't send Naruto-kun back to the Academy. You seem to have forgotten something," Hatake said, amused, and nodded to Naruto. "Naruto-kun has been a genin for a year already. He was safe from my little threat."

"Genin can only retire, or be forcibly retired by their jounin sensei, within the first _six months_ of being registered as genin of their village," Naruto reminded them. "I told you yesterday when I explained why I was being assigned to a team from your class."

"I'm stuck with Naruto-kun," Hatake explained. "You two? You _needed_ to pass this test, and while you failed the first part, at least you succeeded in the second."

"I didn't even need a bell. I was literally just waiting for one of you guys to ask for my help," Naruto added.

"Dammit! Naruto-baka! Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Haruno demanded.

"I do not answer to people who call me 'baka'," Naruto informed the screeching banshee flatly, his blue eyes icy.

"And he did say something sooner. He told you yesterday," Hatake reminded the girl. "As for why he didn't remind you again today? Well, that is because I asked him not to. An extra little test to see how good your memories were."

"Which you also failed," Naruto quipped with a small smirk. "Just, ya know, by the way. Well, welcome to life as registered genin. You have six months to come to your senses and walk away."

"Huh?" Haruno asked, confused.

Hatake chuckled. "Yes," he agreed. "And tomorrow, Team Seven will start taking missions."

~oOo~

Since Naruto had demonstrated to him that he'd let his edge slip from being kunai-sharp to resembling a civilian's sake dish much more closely, Hatake eased up on getting lost on the road to life (which was really his way of saying he was dwelling a bit too much on of ifs and maybes and could-have-beens) and re-focused on his own personal training. He was not pleased to find that climbing cliffs with one arm tied behind his back (literally) was harder than it had used to be. Still, a few dozen repetitions and he was close to being back in shape again.

If he happened to do some of his personal training at the training ground where he'd ordered his genin to meet him, well, then at least they would begin to learn how much effort it was to reach and maintain a jounin ranking.

Or at least, Haruno and Uchiha would. Naruto didn't need the lesson, as he already knew. He lived with his jounin parents, and the family frequently trained all together.

Hatake frowned behind his mask at that thought. It was possible that Naruto's ability was higher than his rank would indicate, but he was simply held back from advancing because of some other factor. The boy's first team hadn't even lasted long enough that they _could_ have been nominated for a chuunin exam, and the Council would never give Naruto a merit promotion. Any other genin that had managed to complete the mission after it went bad, _and_ bring back their team-mates – alive – as well as details of where his sensei was holding off the enemy, well, that genin would have been offered the chance to take a paper test so that they could advance in rank.

Naruto, as far as Hatake knew, hadn't been given that offer.

Damned old idiots on the Council.

~oOo~

Two months. Two months of D-rank missions, reviewing the basics of chakra theory and application, successfully breaking Haruno of her idiotic diet, failing to break her of her fangirl tendencies, and lots of basic strength exercises (because those two kids were _weak_) before Uchiha finally complained, quietly, that he was sick of chasing down cats, babysitting, and doing chores around the village.

However, he'd made that complaint directly to the Hokage, in the mission room, when they'd just completed the mission that was returning the demon cat Tora to her very high-ranking owner. For the third time.

"Show more respect to the Hokage, Sasuke," scolded Umino, who was there with the Hokage, assisting with the matter of assigning missions to teams.

"You don't seem to appreciate the way these missions are assigned," the Hokage told the boy calmly as he waved the chuunin down. "You get what missions you have the skills and experience for. That's it."

"It doesn't take skill and experience to weed a garden. The civilians could do that themselves if they weren't so lazy," Uchiha complained. "I respectfully request a C-rank mission."

Hatake sighed.

"Oh yes," Naruto agreed with a smirk. "Please, Hokage-sama? My last team retired after our first C-rank mission, unable to even think of continuing on as shinobi after Anji-sensei was killed making sure we were able to get away safely. If I'm lucky, these two will retire after a C-rank as well, though I could do without losing another sensei."

The Hokage chuckled softly, very amused at his favourite genin (not that he ever said such things aloud), as Haruno and Uchiha glared at their more senior team-mate for saying such things.

"Well Kakashi?" the Hokage asked. "What's your opinion? Do they need another D-rank, or do you think a C-rank will be good for them?" 'Them' being specifically Haruno and Uchiha. Naruto's abilities were not in question. It was only because of the Council that had hadn't been given the merit-promotion paperwork a year before.

Hatake sighed again. "A C-rank might be just the lesson they need," he agreed, a little despondently. His cute little students could be very difficult to motivate. Well, the two that didn't have Kenshin and Kagome for parents, anyway.

The Hokage nodded, and called in a person who had requested an escort mission.

"These are the ninja that are going to protect me?" the old man asked as he shambled in, a sake jug in hand. "They're children! And what's with the pink hair?"

"Spring brings cherry blossoms to comfort you. The summer, stars. The harvest moon in fall, and the powdered snow in winter. All these things, and the promise of them, is what makes sake taste so good," Naruto said, his voice calm as he stepped past the fuming Haruno, preventing her from saying anything. "This is what my father told me, and when I understood it, he poured sake for the both of us. Sir, does your sake taste good to you?"

For a moment, everybody in the room stared at Naruto, surprised, until Hatake smiled behind his mask and brought a hand down onto the blonde's head.

"I am lucky to have such a wise genin on my team," he said happily.

The client just grumbled and took a swig of his sake. He coughed at the taste, surprised that it suddenly tasted bad, but he swallowed it down all the same.

~oOo~

The request Naruto had placed with the weapon-smith for a wrong-sided sword had not been finished yet, so he would again be venturing out on a C-ranked mission with a deadly blade. He would use it, though he understood the weight of it more now than he had the first time he had ventured out of the village with it. He could only hope that _this_ C-rank mission would have fewer unexpected surprises than his first.

He tied his travelling supplies – sealed in a scroll and wrapped in oiled cloth – to the small of his back, and kissed his family goodbye. It may have been 'only' a C-rank mission, but in the event that he did not come back alive from his mission, he did not wish to die without having his last words to his family being the reminder that he loved them.

"Come back safe, Aniki," Shippo requested solemnly.

"We'll train hard while you're gone," Tomoe promised. "So you have to come back and see how we've improved."

Naruto nodded in silent promise to the twins. "I'll come back. I love you both. Be good for Mother and Father."

"I'll miss you Onii-san," Rin complained with a sniffle.

Naruto smiled and picked her up. "I'll miss you too Rin-chan," he answered, and kissed her cheek. "I love you."

"Love you more," the little girl insisted.

Naruto set her on the ground again and turned to his mother. His first action facing her was to kiss Yahiko's cheek. "Learn to talk while I'm gone Yahiko," he instructed fondly, only half-joking, as Yahiko really should have been talking by now, even if the words weren't all perfectly clear. "Love you."

Yahiko returned Naruto's kiss with a sloppy baby-kiss of his own, which got a happy smile from the blonde.

"Naruto," Kagome said softly, drawing his attention up from the child she was holding. "Do you have everything?"

"I don't have a goodbye kiss from you yet Mother," Naruto answered with a shake of his head, a small smile on his face.

Kagome smiled back and gave her son a kiss on his brow. "Love you," she whispered to him. "Come home safe."

"I will," he promised.

"I expect your new sword will be ready when you return," Kenshin said. "Will you be alright on this mission, carrying that sword?"

Naruto breathed deeply through his nose. "I will," he decided. "I do not seek to kill, but only to take those actions that are necessary to protect myself and those around me who cannot defend themselves."

Kenshin nodded in approval. "I am proud of you, my son," he said.

Naruto's heart swelled. He knew that his father loved him, and he knew that his father was proud of him, but such things didn't actually get _said_ often. "Thank you Father. I love you, and I will return home when my mission is complete."

~oOo~

"Are you satisfied, Sasuke?" Naruto asked his team-mate quietly as they walked. "Instead of a D-rank mission in the village where we're babysitting a civilian child, we have a C-rank mission outside of the village where we're babysitting a drunk civilian adult."

"It's an _escort mission_," Uchiha hissed back. "And why are you suddenly calling me Sasuke? You never used my given name before."

"We were in the safety of the village before," Naruto answered with an easy shrug. "Though, I suppose it makes no difference. Everyone knows the symbol of your family, even if you're the only one not dead now."

"What are you getting at?" Haruno asked from behind, confused.

"I mean that he might as well be wearing a target on his back as an uchiwa," Naruto explained, then looked over his shoulder at the girl. "And that white circle on a red dress? An _actual_ target on your back," he added.

"And orange is more subtle?" Uchiha sneered.

Naruto held up one sleeve. "This particular shade actually blends fairly well. Against trees, sand, rocks," he dropped his arm. "But stealth isn't my speciality, even if it is something that I practice diligently. Still, at least I'm not advertising my weakness for all my enemies to see."

"Weakness?" the client asked, curious and worried, even as Uchiha narrowed his eyes dangerously at Naruto.

"Ah, many shinobi would think that the 'weakness' Naruto-kun is referring to would actually be a very useful thing to have," Hatake comforted. "It is just that Sasuke-kun hasn't really begun to learn how to properly use it, so for now, it is an area of vulnerability in him."

Uchiha grit his teeth at the way his family bloodline was being discussed. It was the greatest dojutsu in all the elemental nations! He didn't understand how they could speak of it that way!

Haruno didn't even know what they _were_ talking about, and was very annoyed by that.

There was only a little further discussion, mostly a lesson that Naruto _really_ thought his team-mates should have gotten when they were in the Academy, before they continued on their way, no more words exchanged for a good hour. The silence was broken when a puddle on the side of the road erupted, revealing two nin who went straight for Hatake – and gleefully declared "one down" as their blade-covered chain ripped through the Konoha jounin.

The duo paused only a moment to assess the situation further, and their gazes fixed for a moment on the client, before they chose Naruto as their next target.

Naruto had already sunken into a ready stance, one that his father had drilled him on for hours every day when he was first learning the sword, and which Naruto continued to practice for at least half an hour every day since his father had declared that he had mastered it. The first of the enemy was screaming in pain and losing incredible amounts of blood from the first strike of Naruto's battou-jutsu, even as Naruto had moved on to another strike, slicing at the second enemy with deadly precision.

Some of that blood landed across Haruno's face, while a greater splatter covered the front of Uchiha's shirt and shorts. The client created his own stain on his trousers once he was able to take in the bloody sight before him, and slowly a new puddle was created beneath the man, this one warm and yellow.

"Well done Naruto-kun," Hatake congratulated as he stepped out of the bushes just off the road.

"I'm sorry you cannot question them, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto apologised as he pulled a white cloth from his kimono, which he then used to clean his sword. "My family's sword style is... somewhat messy."

Hatake chuckled at the boy's modesty. "Do you have your yumi? Perhaps you should carry that in hand, instead of reaching for your sword first?" he suggested.

Naruto shrugged in acquiescence and, his sword cleaned of blood, replaced it in its sheath. A surge of chakra to his left hand caused his yumi to be released from its storage seal, and he gripped it tightly. His other hand was poised and ready to release arrows from the seals in his cuffs.

"W-where did that come from?" Haruno asked, still in shock from seeing first her sensei die, and then seeing one of her team-mates kill.

"And what good is a bow without any arrows?" Uchiha quipped derisively, more quickly recovered from the surprise attack, but very put-out that it was over before he could contribute anything, before he could test his own skills against an enemy.

"Didn't either of you two take lessons with Kagome-sama?" Hatake asked them pointedly. "Any more of an answer than that is not something to be spoken of in the open, out of the village. Now, Tazuna-san," Hatake said, turning to the client. "I think we should have a little talk."


	5. Chapter 5

As well as his sword and his yumi, Naruto also carried a dagger. It was a foot long, and very sharp. He didn't use it much outside of training though. It was a back-up emergency blade. Again, its use had been taught to him by his father. However, it was also good for a makeshift brush, in an emergency. Naruto quickly used it to add a couple of extra storage seals to his luggage scroll, then moved over to the dead bodies.

"Ugh, why are you doing that Naruto?" Haruno asked, disgusted. She'd finally wiped the blood off her face.

"These guys have a reputation for fighting through anything. They have a price on their heads. Not a big price since they're just chuunin, but they're also from Mist, and their bodies are valuable because of that," Naruto explained as he sorted their weapons into one seal, then sealed their bodies into another. The medical section of the Torture and Interrogation department back in Konoha would be simply thrilled with his present, he knew.

"How do you know they're chuunin?" Uchiha questioned, more curious than disgusted.

"There's this nifty little book that all jounin can request from their kages, called a Bingo Book, and it's got details about what ninja have what bounties, and a bit about their fighting styles if the village can find that information. My dad's had me studying his since he got the promotion," Naruto admitted easily.

"And those chuunin were after you, Tazuna-san," Hatake informed the client bluntly. "You having ninja after you bumps this up from a C- to a B-rank mission. We don't appreciate being deliberately lied to about what to expect on a mission."

"We're just new genin," Haruno said weakly. "We're not experienced enough to handle a B-rank."

"Yes we damn-well are," Uchiha growled. "We're not backing down now, right Sensei?"

Hatake forced himself to not sigh in frustration. His cute little genin had been getting that reaction from him way too often lately. "Expect to be billed for a higher ranking mission, Tazuna-san," Hatake informed the client. "If you cannot pay in money, then the Hokage will negotiate an alternative method of payment."

"Thank you!" Tazuna breathed with relief. "Thank you!"

~oOo~

"The fog is so thick," Haruno observed quietly as the boat they were riding in to the Land of Waves was pushed through the water as silently as possible.

"Ideal for smuggling in an old man who doesn't want to be found," Naruto replied softly. "Especially when he doesn't want to be found by a man who has hired mercenaries to kill him."

"Ah," Hatake agreed, his tone sharp even though his voice was low. "Tazuna-san, I am extremely tempted end this mission, to count it as complete and you escorted to your 'home' as soon as we have you ashore. Convince me not to," he instructed.

"I want you to know the truth," Tazuna said with a grunt. "The man who is after me... he's a small man, but one who casts a large shadow, and then orders people to be killed in that shadow. People like myself. I expect you've heard of him," he allowed. "He's one of the richest men in the world, after all. The shipping magnate, Gatou."

"A well-known and extremely successful business man," Hatake noted.

"Business man is a pretty title, and only the tip of the iceberg with him. He also sells drugs, contraband, and takes over nations with his money and hired mercenaries," Tazuna explained. "A year ago, he set his sights on Wave. Anybody who stood in his way, if they were business competition or just stubborn about continuing to live their own way, they disappeared. I'm not sure how I've lived as long as I have since I started building the bridge," he admitted, and looked up at the very large structure he was building. "As long as Gatou has control of the seas around our island nation, he has control of the whole place. My bridge would connect us to the mainland and break that hold."

"I hate missions like this," Hatake grumbled. "Shouldn't keep going, but can't leave it be either."

"Why should we not keep going?" Uchiha wanted to know.

"And why can't we go back to Konoha?" Haruno pressed.

"We can't abandon the mission because Tazuna-san is too important to Wave as a nation. Konoha doesn't like to damage its reputation by abandoning missions that have such national importance," Hatake explained. "Continuing is, however, very risky. The next enemy we encounter may very likely be a jounin, rather than a chuunin, and what do you remember from trying to attack _me_ those couple of months ago?" he reminded them. "I wasn't even _trying_ back then."

Haruno and Uchiha both had enough good sense to be nervous, and that uneasiness stayed with them as they left the fog and the boat behind.

~oOo~

Some bushes off to the side rustled ever-so-slightly, and Haruno, being still very nervous since Hatake had put them on their guard by telling them that their next enemy would be a jounin more likely than not, launched a kunai at the spot where she'd heard that movement.

Investigation proved that it was a rabbit.

A snow rabbit, in fact, and one that was white out of season.

Naruto stood back from where Haruno was apologising to the rabbit, petting its fur, and generally being a girl, and scanned the surrounds, alert for the foe. The only reason for an anomaly like that rabbit would be one kept in captivity, and for it to be out here, then that meant it was mostly likely kept for being used in the replacement technique.

Hatake was doing the same thing, but facing the other direction. With such a flawless replacement technique, there was no telling where the enemy had disappeared to. Well, not until they launched an attack anyway.

That attack, tensely anticipated as it was by two of the company, came soon enough.

"Down!" Hatake ordered them all. He was glad to see everybody was pressed to the ground when a massive weapon flew overhead – at what would have been neck-height of the client. The weapon moved upwards from that low-point of its swinging spin through the air, and lodged in a tree.

Hatake was the first to be on his feet again, and Naruto was close behind him, still scanning the area even as he kept one eye on the large weapon. Haruno, Uchiha and the client stood as well, stunned and off-balance after the attack.

"Well well, if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, nuke nin from Kiri," Hatake greeted the imposing figure that appeared suddenly, standing perfectly balanced on the handle of the massive weapon.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye," Momochi returned. "That's right, isn't it?" he quipped. "Sorry, but you're going to have to hand over the old man."

"Sorry, but we can't do that," Hatake answered. "Mohnji formation, protect the client," he instructed without turning to his team.

"Sir, yes sir," Naruto agreed shortly, even as he let loose an arrow at the enemy.

It struck the man in the arm, as he had turned slightly just in time for it to miss getting him in the back. The wound would bleed, and hurt, but it wouldn't be the man's death.

Naruto quickly re-sealed his bow and settled into place in front of the client, his hand hovering over his sword.

"And keep _out_ of this fight," Hatake snapped at them as he pushed up his hitae-ate so that it no longer covered his left eye.

"Oh? I get to see the Sharingan in action?" Momochi asked. "What an honour. You know, back when I was in Kiri, our Bingo book had a standing order to kill you on sight. Kakashi, the man who copied over a thousand jutsu, the copy ninja. But enough talk. I really do need to exterminate the old man."

Haruno and Uchiha finally fell into formation with Naruto, forming a tidy little wall between Momochi and the client. Unfortunately, the key word in that was 'little', rather than 'wall'.

"Ah, I'll have to eliminate you first, Kakashi?" Momochi asked, and the tone of his voice suggested that he was smiling at the prospect behind his mask of bandages. "So be it."

The jounin grabbed hold of his sword and launched himself from the tree.

"He's standing on the water!" Haruno exclaimed in shock, eyes wide when she finally saw where the enemy had re-positioned himself.

And then he vanished as he called up a technique that raised a thick mist, a mist which hid him completely from view.

"He vanished!" Haruno exclaimed, shocked.

"More than can be said for Naruto," Uchiha said flatly. "The orange sticks out," he informed the blonde with a superior air.

"Will you both shut up!" Naruto hissed at them, his voice low. "Momochi is an assassin, one of the best Kiri ever produced! He doesn't need to be able to see us to kill us faster than either of you can blink."

"Not even the Sharingan can properly track how fast Momochi Zabuza can kill," Hatake agreed. "If we fail, we'll only be losing our lives at least."

"How can you say that?!" Haruno demanded.

"For once, I agree with the fangirl," Naruto mumbled.

~oOo~ 

"It's interesting," Naruto said as they left the battlefield behind them. "The way a person reacts the first time they are forced to experience killing intent."

"I froze up, just completely," Haruno admitted sadly.

"I was the same," agreed the client.

"Mm," Naruto answered. "You're a civilian, Tazuna-san, such a reaction is to be expected from you," he said, and judiciously didn't say anything about Haruno's own extremely civilian response to Momochi's killing intent. "Sasuke's reaction, on the other hand," he started, a hint of a smirk on his face. "Kakashi-sensei had to snap him out of pointing his kunai at his own gut. Willing to kill yourself rather than persevere through a bit of killing intent, kohai?"

Uchiha scowled at Naruto fiercely. "And what about you?" he demanded. "You didn't do anything either!"

"Exactly," Naruto agreed. "I did nothing. I didn't freeze up, I didn't try and kill myself, in fact I didn't react to the killing intent at all. Then again, today is far from my first exposure to killing intent."

"And how _did_ you react, the first time?" Haruno asked curiously.

"Well, the first time I froze up just like Sakura, but the second time? I charged like a chibi possessed, to try and kill the person who was affecting me that way," Naruto answered. "If you don't believe me, when Kakashi-sensei wakes up, you can ask him. I think he was around for my lessons that day."

"Lessons?" Haruno asked. "In what? From who?"

"In swordsmanship, and from my father," Naruto replied. "My dad's lessons are how I was able to respond to Momochi being in the middle of us suddenly, even if it was just a water-clone."

"And what about when you ran out _on_ the water to save Kakashi-sensei from the water-prison?" Haruno asked. "Did you dad teach you that too?"

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah," he admitted easily. "Walking on water, that's a fairly basic chakra control exercise. Useful one too. I've been doing it since I was... uh, seven? Yeah," he confirmed to himself as he hitched Hatake's unconscious form higher again. The man had an annoying tendency to slip down as Naruto carried him. "Seven. Got my first lessons in how to deal with killing intent when I was four though."

"Four?!" Haruno screeched.

Naruto shrugged, and the action made his sensei slip down again. Naruto re-hefted the man. At least it was just chakra exhaustion, not blood-loss and shock on top of that, like the last time he'd been carrying someone away from a fight. If it had been blood-loss and shock, Naruto would have turned around and taken his sensei back to Konoha and the hospital there, regardless of the bad press that abandoning the mission might get for Konoha. If one of Konoha's elite got killed on a C-rank, that would be _so_ much worse.

As it was, it looked like this mission's issues had issues. It was even worse than his first C-rank that had gone unexpectedly south. Well, at least they had some warning this time, and they weren't running from two teams of mixed chuunin and jounin, but rather towards one jounin and his hunter-nin accomplice. It was the small things really.

Damn it all.

Maybe he'd get his sensei back to Konoha alive along with his team-mates this time. He hoped.

~oOo~

Naruto was very grateful to the client and his daughter for providing them with rooms in their home, most particularly to the daughter, Tsunami, for immediately fetching a futon. It meant that he could finally set his sensei down. A grown man got heavy after a while, especially when he was essentially a dead weight.

Though thankfully the man hadn't actually been dead.

Naruto made himself comfortable against the wall near where he'd laid Hatake out on the provided futon, and, just to pass the time, he pulled out the only toy he felt that he would never outgrow. It was a wooden top, a koma. According to his mother, it was the very first toy that his dad had ever brought home, and while Naruto was still burbling in his cot, Kenshin had enjoyed setting it spinning himself. For that matter, so had Kagome.

There was something calming and slightly hypnotic about watching the brightly coloured koma spin, and it lightened Naruto's heart every time he set it to dancing around and around.

Even with his gaze determinedly fixed on the koma, his mind deliberately empty of any thought, Naruto was sensitive to his surroundings. His mother had taught him to recognise the auras of people, back before his father had taught him how to endure killing intent, to rebuff it. Then, becoming an elder brother, Naruto had learned how to keep a sharp ear out for what his mischievous little siblings were up to. Trying to sneak up on him, or sneak past him when he was on guard duty when they'd been sent to their room for some reason, or those times when it had been his turn to mind one of his younger siblings when they were sick. He knew the sounds of cooking, because when his parents were both in the kitchen (and sometimes they made meals together, though usually they took turns) he had to keep all of his younger siblings out of the kitchen and occupied in some way. He knew how to listen to conversation through a wall, because he was frequently called as a witness by his parents when his siblings had fights.

Naruto listened to Tsunami making tea, to his team-mates absent wonderings about what had caused Kakashi-sensei to just fall over like that after the fight was done, to the client grumbling about how the sake just didn't taste good any more. To Hatake's breathing patterns change.

He was waking up.

"I'm glad you're awake, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, looking up at the man from his koma. "We were all worried about you, the way you just fell over like that for no apparent reason."

"Chakra exhaustion," Hatake said.

"I said 'no _apparent_ reason'," Naruto reminded, and moved to help his struggling sensei sit up. "I know what chakra exhaustion looks like. We're at the client's house, by the way. No injuries, apart from your abused coils, and they'll be complaining to you for the better part of a week, if I remember my lessons right."

Hatake nodded. "Good," he praised absently. "That's good."

One of Naruto's eyebrows kicked itself up at that. "You're officially out of it," he informed his sensei. "Maybe you should get a few more hours sleep before anything else?" he suggested archly.

"Good that we're at the client's house, he's home safe, as per mission parameters," Hatake clarified, even as he obediently lay back down. "More sleep is a good idea too. Oh, but you kids shouldn't just sit around while I'm recovering..."

~oOo~ 

"Why should I greet them, when they're all just going to die?" the child asked, not petulantly, but rather with an air of depressed certainty. "Gatou _will_ kill them."

"Inari!" his mother scolded.

"Eh, Inari, these ninja are not so easy to kill," Tazuna declared happily. "They've already killed three of Gatou's ninja!"

"We're heroes," Haruno preened slightly, though perfectly aware that she herself had nothing to do with any of those victories.

"There's no such thing as heroes," the little boy said, and derisively. "If you want to stay alive, then you should go back to where you came from."

"If they want to stay alive, they should retire from the life of a shinobi," Naruto corrected as he joined his team-mates, the client, and the client's family in the living space where they were all gathered.

"Naruto! How's Kakashi-sensei?" Haruno asked.

"Sleeping," Naruto answered. "He woke up briefly, but he exhausted his chakra. He's going to stay in bed for the rest of today, and he'll be less than mobile for the rest of the week," he explained. "He said you two were to keep working on the tree-climbing exercise until he's up and about again," he added, then turned to the boy in the green over-alls and striped bucket-hat. "I'm babysitting, I mean, I've got guard duty."

It was a deliberate slip-up.

"Babysitting?" Tsunami asked pointedly.

Naruto bowed politely to her. "Forgive me if I speak out of turn," he begged. "But your father complains much, and from what I heard, your son lacks the more mature world-view that can only come with experience."

Tsunami nodded in acceptance, and turned back to washing dishes in the sink.

"What do you know?" Inari demanded harshly. "What have you _experienced_?" The boy didn't wait for an answer though, simply ran away up the stairs.

"Inari!" Tsunami called after him.

"Peace," Naruto begged. "I will speak with him, if I may know the story of the torn picture?"

"My husband, Inari's step-father. Gatou had him killed."

"His name was Kaiza," Tazuna added. "He was a fisherman. It was about three years ago he came to Wave, and taught us the meaning of courage. I'll spare you the long version, but Kaiza was a hero around here. When Gatou came and started terrorising the village, Kaiza was the only one who stood up to him."

"Live your life so that you have nothing to regret, my husband used to say," Tsunami interjected softly. "If you care about something, protect it. No matter how sad, you've got to keep trying. Even if you have to put your life on the line, protect it with both arms. Never give in."

"It took Gatou's entire gang to stop Kaiza, and then he had Kaiza's arms broken before he was publicly executed. Inari... hasn't smiled since," Tazuna explained. "Very few people have. With our hero dead... it's like everybody in the village died with him. We lost our will to fight."

"Well, not everybody has given up, ne, Tazuna-san?" Naruto reminded the old man with a gentle smile. "You still believe in and fight for the future. That is why you still build your bridge. It is a brave thing you do."

Tazuna nodded in gratitude.

Naruto returned the nod. "I hope your sake tastes better," he bid as he moved for the door Inari had disappeared through. "I will go speak with Inari-san."

The boy was crying in his room. Sitting on top of his desk, hunched over and sobbing.

"You know, the picture of your family," Naruto said softly as he closed the door behind him. "I noticed that... your father's arms were still in the picture."

The child went rigidly still.

"I also noticed that he had many scars on his arms," Naruto continued. "I get the feeling that your father fought for many things, with those arms of his. I dare say that he won many of those fights as well."

"What does it matter?" the child demanded, his voice thick with tears. "He's dead."

"Yes," Naruto agreed. "Yes, he is. I am sorry for that."

"What do you care," Inari grumbled. "You don't know what it's like."

"What what is like?" Naruto asked gently. "To lose a parent? I have six parents. My biological parents, who died the same day that I was born. My parents who adopted me, and taught me to be strong. My first jounin-sensei, who in just two months became like another father to me, sacrificed his own life so that I and two other genin could safely reach Konoha when the enemy were chasing us. My current jounin-sensei, who I have also known for only two months, and who right now is asleep in your home, exhausted almost to death, because he was protecting us. So you see, I have lost three parents, and am at risk of losing a fourth."

"You don't know!" Inari insisted. "Gatou's got a whole army! They'll beat you down and they'll destroy you! No matter what you say, the strong always win and the weak always lose!"

Naruto smiled sadly.

"In that case, become stronger," he advised.

"Didn't you hear me? Gatou has got an army!"

"Numbers alone do not win battles," Naruto told the boy, his voice soft. "They help, I will not deny that, but a thief is easily evicted, if the people of the house are willing to defend what is theirs, and what is Gatou but a thief?"

Inari sniffled some more, and Naruto left the boy alone to think.

~oOo~

Hatake was up and mobile. He wasn't at one-hundred percent just yet, but he could get out of bed, be the 'guard' at the house or supervise training. Naruto was relieved from duty so far as to have the mornings for himself.

Grateful for this, Naruto left the house at the first hint of grey light touching the sky. It was enough for him to see by. He had his own training to catch up on.

The grey time in Wave Country lasted two hours before the first true light of dawn pierced the early-morning mists. Naruto had worked through his katas, had fired and re-sealed every one of his arrows at a target he had cut into one of the trees, and now settled down against that same tree to meditate, just for a little while.

"You will catch cold if you fall asleep here," a pleasant voice said as a hand gently shook Naruto's shoulder, interrupting his meditation.

He opened his eyes, and cocked his head to the side as he considered the person before him.

"That is an interesting collar you wear," Naruto answered neutrally. "But I was meditating, not sleeping."

"Oh! Oh, then I apologise," the stranger said, surprised and, yes, genuinely apologetic.

Naruto smiled back. "No, I should go in search of breakfast soon. I have been at it for a while. Forgive my manners. I'm Naruto," he said, introducing himself.

"I'm Haku," the stranger answered with a smile.

"Haku-san," Naruto repeated, and tilted his head the other way as he continued to consider the person before him. "Would you be more insulted if I said your face was very pretty, or your chest not very prominent?" he asked as delicately as he could.

"The former," Haku replied firmly, though with a wry curl to his lips.

Naruto smirked. "Then may I suggest you tie your obi in the front, and do not wear your hair loose," he advised with a chuckle, and stood. He reached back and released his own long fall of golden yellow hair from its tie, shaking it out. "You see the difference it makes on me?"

Haku blinked, and after a moment of staring at the way the blonde hair fell around Naruto's face, nodded. "Yes," he agreed with just the faintest hint of a blush high on his cheekbones. "Though I do like to wear it loose when I can."

Naruto shrugged easily. "In truth, there are times when I do too, but my hair becomes difficult to manage when it's not tied back," he admitted as he secured his hair once more. "May I ask what brings you out here, Haku-san?"

"I'm gathering herbs," Haku answered.

"For seasoning a meal, or healing?" Naruto enquired with a smile.

"The kind for treating illnesses and healing wounds," Haku replied.

"Mm," Naruto hummed with a nod. "I noticed there was a small glade of such herbs near here. I intended to collect some for my own sensei before I returned to him this morning."

"You have someone precious to protect?" Haku asked as they walked together to where the patch of herbs were.

Naruto nodded. "I have many people who I hold precious, people I would be willing to give my life for if it meant they would live long and fulfilling lives of their own," he acknowledged, and knelt among the herbs to start picking. "I am so fortunate to also have people who hold me in the same regard, people who I must live for."

"People... people are always stronger, when they're fighting to protect someone or something that is precious to them," Haku said softly, a distant look in his gentle brown eyes.

"In more ways than one," Naruto agreed. He certainly hadn't known he'd had it in him to carry his first two team-mates all the way back to Konoha, after all. All he'd been worried about was getting them back safely, keeping them safe, keeping them alive, delivering the message that Anji-sensei needed back-up _fast_.

Naruto picked another herb, and this one he placed in Haku's basket.


	6. Chapter 6

Hatake was recovered, and had concluded that if _he_ was recovered, then it was likely that Momochi was recovered as well. The man wasn't dead, after all, though the explanation of that had shocked Haruno and the client, as well as surprised Uchiha. Hatake granted Naruto the morning to himself again, but instructed him to come to the bridge, to join the rest of the team in their guard detail, when he was ready.

So, Naruto was still at the house, leisurely enjoying his breakfast while Tsunami cleaned up after the breakfast that had been shared by his team and her father, when a pair of Gatou's thugs showed up. They were so uncouth as to cut through the wall, rather than simply use the door.

"You're going to come with us Miss," said one.

His companion, who wore no shirt but was styling an eye-patch and tattoos, smirked and chuckled wickedly. "And I'm going to enjoy cutting you up," he said to Naruto.

Inari, who had been in the bathroom, came out to see what the noise was.

Naruto set his chopsticks down calmly and rose from his seat at the table. "Tsunami-san, I apologise," he said, as he turned towards the men, "for getting blood all over your nice clean kitchen."

"What?" the two grown men both growled as their hands went to their swords. Katanas, like Naruto's own.

Through a spray of blood, Naruto moved, his blade slicing down through the shoulder and chest of one, and cleaving through the side and spine of the other.

"I'm afraid that the sword-style of my family can be rather messy," Naruto said, and withdrew the cloth that he used to clean the blood off his sword.

"Wow," Inari breathed, wide-eyed. "You... you are strong," he praised, awed by how quickly Naruto had killed two grown men.

"I am sorry you had to see it," Naruto admitted, and rested a hand on top of the boy's head. "It is not an easy thing, but the right thing to do is often difficult."

"Naruto-kun, I would appreciate it very much if you could remove these men from my house," Tsunami requested weakly.

Naruto turned from Inari and nodded simply to the woman. He quickly stored the men in the same seal as the two chuunin from Mist, just in case they might be of interest as well, and then excused himself from the house to join the rest of his team.

The day was fine, bright and cheerfully sunny as Naruto left the house. There was a rather abrupt and thick mist all around the bridge when it reached it though. Naruto paused at the edge of that mist to consider. What little he could see indicated an apparently open confrontation, though the floating sheets of ice was interesting, most particularly because, curled up on the ground at the centre of them all, was a body in a blue shirt, decorated with a familiar, defunct symbol, topped with a mess of black hair.

Uchiha.

He heard Haruno excuse herself to the client, and watched as she leapt to throw a kunai, all the while calling out for the Uchiha.

Naruto was a little surprised to see the hunter-nin lean his upper body out of one of those sheets of ice, though less surprised that he caught the kunai Haruno had thrown. Still, he was not one to waste an opportunity, and they were his team-mates, however little he liked them. Naruto released his yumi from the seal on his palm, as well as two arrows from another seal, and fired one of them into the unguarded back of their circumstantial enemy.

He fell the rest of the way out of the sheet of ice, landing on the ground in such a way that, unfortunately, forced the arrow deeper into his back.

"It seems that you forgot I have a _third_ genin," Hatake quipped to Momochi. "And really, whatever I may say in praise of my other two genin, Naruto-kun is truly the most experience and efficient genin on this team."

The sheets of ice shattered, the sharply frozen water raining down on the Uchiha, further injuring the boy who couldn't even move out of the way.

The mist thickened further into complete soup. It was impossible to see more than three feet into it.

Naruto frowned. It seemed that staying back and being long-distance support was no longer a viable strategy. He walked carefully through the soup-thick mist, aiming for the spot of bright colour that he knew to be his female team-mate.

"Sakura," he greeted softly.

"Naruto!" she yelped, loudly.

He scowled at her.

Haruno flinched and covered her mouth, catching on that being loud wasn't a good idea right now, at last. "How did you find us in this?" she whispered.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her and looked pointedly at her dress.

She blushed as she caught the unspoken implication.

"Get the client out of here," Naruto ordered her softly. "A confrontation between ninja is no place for a civilian. Sensei has Momochi occupied right now, and the mist ends when the bridge does. Return quickly, with bandages for Sasuke if possible."

"Ha- hai," she agreed, her voice subdued, before she grabbed Tazuna's hand and started to drag him away from the battle zone.

~oOo~

"So this is how it turned out? I must say, Zabuza, I'm disappointed," a small man declared with a smile as he emerged from the mist.

Hatake had killed the man with a lightning technique while his summoned ninken held the other shinobi in place, unable to escape the deadly blow.

"Now where's the punk that broke my arm?" Gatou demanded.

Naruto allowed himself a small smirk when he heard the question. The hunter-nin was actually alive, barely, and Naruto had used the older boy's own blood to draw a stasis seal on his brow before sealing him in his travel scroll, separately to the corpses. It wouldn't do to give a live one to the mortuary section of Torture and Interrogation's medical division, after all. No, the hunter-nin would need actual medical attention before he would be shuffled over to someone like Ibiki.

"Nowhere to be found. Damn. Still," the small man continued. "Now you can't complain about me refusing to pay you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man, the man that gloated and grinned as he stepped on the bloody and still-warm corpse of Momochi Zabuza.

"Sensei," Naruto called softly to the man. They were the foremost shinobi on the bridge. Haruno was further back, packing up the medical supplies she'd insisted on applying to Uchiha while Hatake fought Momochi. Uchiha himself had moved up since he'd been released from her tender mercies.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?" Hatake answered.

"Flip you for the right to kill the little scum bag," Naruto offered hopefully.

Hatake snorted. "No, Naruto-kun," he replied. "I've got it. You go back to Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan. If the thugs decide to attack when their employer is dead, then they are for you and your team-mates."

Naruto nodded in understanding, and turned from the oncoming death. "Sensei? I'll collect Momochi-san's body, once it's done, if that's alright with you."

"I think there might be some who would want to give him an honourable burial," Hatake pointed out lightly.

"That is a civilian way of thinking. The enemy is brought back for analysis if dead, captured for interrogation if alive. Allies are cremated and honoured," Naruto answered softly.

Hatake nodded in approval. "You may collect him and his sword when it is over," he agreed. And then he withdrew the last kunai he had stored in the holster on his thigh.

~oOo~

"Is that really it, Kakashi-sensei?" Haruno asked sadly as she watched her blonde team-mate seal Momochi into his scroll with the other dead bodies he'd collected on their mission.

"Hm?" Hatake grunted in curiosity, wondering what 'it' she was talking about.

"Is that really the ninja way?" she clarified. "What they said? To use and be used by people, like tools?"

"Every person is merely a puppet to destiny. No use wondering whether it's right or wrong, it just is, and trying to find your own personal reason for being is something most shinobi know better than to do," he answered her. "Every shinobi is a tool for their village, and that idea exists in our home too."

"That just... seems so wrong," Haruno said softly. "We go through all this training, and we'll still end up like them."

"What is the reason for that?" Uchiha asked lowly. "Do you think that way?"

"If I had an answer for that question, I would tell you," Hatake sighed out. "For myself, I don't think that way. Ninja who do, they tend to suffer for it, whether they notice or not. Every ninja, every day of our lives, we deal with these things. That there is no real and enduring answer."

"What did you think you were learning?" Naruto questioned his team-mates as he rejoined them. "I can think of very few reasons that an entire village would encourage you to learn how to be a murderer."

Haruno and Uchiha both froze, tensed up, their throats locked and their eyes went wide and afraid as they both fixed their gazes on their blonde team-mate.

"Make no mistake," Naruto continued. "A shinobi commits the act of manslaughter on a regular basis. So far, you have lived without blood on your hands. You don't know the true _weight_ of taking a life." Naruto pinned Uchiha with a sharp, cold look. "Do not run towards such a thing."

Hatake brought up his bloody hand, and set it gently on Naruto's head. The genin didn't flinch away. He had this in common with his sensei. They were both killers. It was a milestone that neither of his team-mates had yet passed.

Naruto wondered if they ever would, and what sorts of people they would become on the day they felt that weight crash down upon them. He somehow hoped that they would never reach that horrible milestone in their lives.

~oOo~

Naruto was pleased to be tackled by the twins and Rin when he got home, and to find his father there, just behind them, with Yahiko on his hip, grinning.

"Welcome home," Kenshin greeted his eldest with a relieved smile.

"I'm home," Naruto agreed as he smiled back up from where he'd ended up on the ground in the entry-way.

A pair of arms lifted the smaller children off him, and Naruto twisted to see his mother standing in the door behind him, a smile on her face.

"I'm so glad you're alright," she said, tears gathering in her eyes.

"Mother, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, concerned, as he righted himself and climbed back to his feet.

"I was in the missions office when Hatake-san came in to deliver the mission report," Kagome explained. "Oh, Naruto!" she cried, and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Eh, heh," Naruto said awkwardly, even as he eagerly returned the embrace. "I'm fine Mother, really I am," he promised her. "I need to pay a visit to the Torture and Interrogation department before the day is out, but I'm fine!"

"Why do you need to go there?" Kenshin demanded, worry written all over his face.

"I have presents for them," Naruto admitted with a wince. "Rogue nin from Mist."

Kagome squeeze a little tighter, pulled Naruto a little closer.

"Kagome, he needs to breathe," Kenshin reminded his wife fondly.

Kagome sighed, and her desperate hold slackened. "And my team are leaving on a C-rank this afternoon," she said. "All because they heard that Team Seven had just returned from one, and Kiba-kun just refuses to be 'one-upped' by your Uchiha team-mate."

"When you return, I should probably take _my_ team on a C-rank mission," Kenshin allowed thoughtfully. "Before the chuunin exams come. They are not as bad as they were, but my team could still use some more experience. How did your team take it, Naruto?"

"They didn't say much on the return trip," Naruto admitted. "But some of the things that happened... I don't know if they'll both still be shinobi at the end of the month. It depends, I suppose. Haruno really didn't take it that well, the idea that a shinobi is a killer, and a tool of their village."

The Himura parents nodded.

"It is a hard truth to accept," Kenshin agreed solemnly. "By the way, the weapon-smith contacted me two days ago. Your new sword is finished."

Naruto grinned.

~oOo~

Team Seven had a few days off following their return from Wave, and Naruto took advantage of it eagerly. After making his delivery to the Torture and Interrogation department at the Hokage Tower, Naruto spent a lot of his time with his little brothers and sisters. He played and laughed with them, trained with them, and spent a great deal of time talking to Yahiko in the hopes that the toddler would pick up some words himself. He also trained with his father, getting used to his new sword with its reversed blade. His standard katana had been set on a sword stand out of reach of the younger children, joining his shinai and his two bokken.

Naruto also met his father's genin team, Team Ten, which consisted of Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji.

That morning, after sending Tomoe and Shippo to the Academy, and escorting Rin and Yahiko to the daycare centre, Naruto went with his father to the training ground where Kenshin met with his genin team. A training ground that had a small river running into a good-sized pond.

"While we wait for my students, I wish to test your swordsmanship," Kenshin informed his eldest son with a smile. "Make sure you haven't gotten into bad habits while I wasn't looking."

Naruto smiled back at his father, and they moved together to stand on the water's surface.

"Attack me," Kenshin ordered.

Naruto lowered himself into his stance, and did just that.

Good as Naruto was with the blade, the difference between master and student was clear when father and son engaged in battle. Five minutes of intense battle passed between them before Kenshin sent his son crashing into the shore.

"You forgot that the sheath is an effective weapon as well," Kenshin scolded his son lightly as he went to help Naruto back to his feet.

"I did," Naruto agreed.

"So cool!" a voice cried out, somehow squealing and cooing at the same time.

"Ah, it seems that my genin have arrived," Kenshin noted. "Shikamaru-kun, Ino-kun, Chouji-kun, this is my son Naruto. Naruto, these are my students. They are from the Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi clans."

Naruto bowed to the trio. "Pleased to meet you," he greeted.

"Sensei's son?" Chouji asked, curiously.

"Adopted, but yes," Naruto answered, pre-empting the question of why he didn't look like his father.

Ino sidled up to him. "Ne, Naruto-kun, do you have a girlfriend?" she enquired, her face stretched into what she probably thought was a flirtatious look, but was really just mildly unnerving to the young man.

"No," Naruto answered simply. "But I'm determined that I'm not even going to look for at least another three years. I think I'm too young to be in a relationship just yet."

"Smart," Shikamaru stated appreciatively.

"Eh?!" Ino yelped. "I'd have expected you to say 'troublesome', like you always do."

Shikamaru shrugged. "I don't call things troublesome when they're not," he informed her plainly.

"Well, today will be troublesome for you, Shikamaru-kun. You and my son are going to train together, while I supervise Ino-kun and Chouji-kun," Kenshin announced happily. "You need less supervision than your team-mates, and Naruto will be a good partner for you."

Shikamaru's shoulders slumped. "Troublesome," he groused.

The Himuras chuckled in amusement, and Naruto grabbed Shikamaru's wrist, dragging him over to the pond.

"Oi oi! I can't walk on water!" Shikamaru objected as Naruto continued past the shore and water flowed into the Nara boy's sandals.

Naruto paused and looked back at the other boy. "Oh, well, we'll correct that first then, before I get you to show me how you are with that blade," he said, pointing to the bokken that Shikamaru had strapped across his back.

Like Naruto's own second bokken, Shikamaru's wooden sword had a steel edge fixed to it. Naruto knew, however, that his father had not been teaching the family style to Shikamaru, but a much more... open, generic, and base sort of style. One that Shikamaru would be able to build up his own, personal style from.

Naruto looked forward to testing Shikamaru's ability.

~oOo~

Naruto was back to performing D-rank mission with his team (they hadn't decided to retire after their last mission... yet) when his mother returned with Team Eight from their C-rank mission and his father took Team Ten out for theirs. Dog walking, weed-pulling, grocery shopping for old people, and babysitting.

Naruto was pretty happy about that last one, since one of the babysitting missions Team Seven was assigned was taking care of his own younger siblings, from the twins all the way down to Yahiko. Kagome had agreed at dinner the previous night that her family just didn't get enough time together any more, and had requested the mission with the Hokage to make _sure_ that her children at least would get a full day.

Tomoe, Shippo, Rin and Yahiko were also excited to finally meet their big brother's new team, though Yahiko still wasn't talking yet. They had met Naruto's old team when he'd been with them for only a week, as Naruto had invited them to have dinner with his family. Actually, Naruto's old team-mates still came over for dinner once a month, to see how he was going. He was the only one of them who was still an active ninja, since they'd retired, and he'd saved their lives. Even if they were civilians now, they still did their best to keep an eye on him. He in turn goaded them into training with him on the nights they visited. They weren't shinobi any more, but that was no reason to forget everything.

Naruto's younger siblings had only met his new sensei so far (the man had been quietly bullied into coming to dinner with the family at least once a month himself, by Kagome) and they were curious about the rest of their big brother's new team.

Of course, Kagome couldn't just wait at home for Team Seven to collect her children, and she was meeting her team at the Hokage Tower as well, so Naruto got to meet Team Eight at the same time as Team Seven was collecting his siblings in the missions office.

Well, he'd heard about them, much like he'd heard about Team Ten before he'd met them. Mostly it was complaints about Kiba barking more than he had the bite to back up, followed by sighs and that frustrated look that both of his parents got when something was stirring in their memories, something from before the Kyuubi attack.

Moments that stirred and those forgotten memories always meant nightmares later, and his parents only ever talked to each other about those nightmares. It was one of the few things they kept secret from him. Their struggle with their memories was something he could not understand, and so they did not burden him by asking that he try.

Kagome also mentioned any time Hinata pushed herself too hard in her training. The girl was familiar to the Himura family because of the rescue Kenshin had performed a few years ago, and Naruto knew a bit about her because he was good friends with a different Hyuuga. Hinata was determined to be strong, and she was, but it seemed that she just couldn't ever believe that she was strong _enough_. Considering her decision to become a shinobi, that was a wise mind-set to have, but there was such a thing as training too hard.

Not that she had many good role-models for _knowing when to stop_.

It was the final member of Team Eight that he was most interested in meeting though, the one he wanted to meet before he and Team Seven left with his siblings.

"... and Aburame Shino-kun," Kagome finished her introductions. Naruto had heard of all of them before, but had only met Hinata, and that in passing. He was glad to have faces to put with the other two names at last.

"Pleased to meet you," Naruto greeted them as a whole, before he turned his attention to the boy who was wearing perfectly black sunglasses. "I hope I can get to know you better, Aburame-san."

Slowly, Aburame inclined his head, as though the suggestion, the focus on _him_, though it was not unwelcome had surprised him.

"Hyuuga-san, I hope your cousin is well?" Naruto asked Hinata.

"Hai," she answered. "I'll pass on your greeting?" she suggested.

"Thank you," Naruto agreed with a bow of his head.

"Aniki! Aniki!" Shippo chanted, tugging on Naruto's sleeve – pulling his kimono open a bit as he did so, revealing some of the scars Naruto had received from his father when he had been first learning the sword. The scars were old now, and so faded they were almost not there, but they were invariably _there_ still. He was actually a little proud of them. They were proof that he had worked hard for his skills. The demon fox sealed within him would see them gone completely well before he was out of his teens though, he knew. The demon fox would have seen them gone years ago, but Naruto had protested. He wanted these proofs to stay with him a while longer.

"We're gonna kick your butt today, Aniki!" Tomoe cheered happily as she swung from his opposite hand. Her actions and her words were so very at odds with each other that Naruto's team-mates looked at the little girl as though she had grown a second head.

"Me too!" Rin added brightly as she latched on to her eldest brother's waist.

Naruto chuckled. "Yes yes," he allowed fondly. "You all brought your shinai, and I have mine in a storage seal as well. But if you only kick my butt, then that might make my team-mates feel left out. We wouldn't want to be rude."

"We'll kick their butts too!" Shippo insisted with a bright smile.

Naruto laughed happily, freed himself from Tomoe and Shippo, and accepted Yahiko from his mother. The boy was capable of walking on his own, and actually joined Rin and the twins in the dojo for lessons, but he still got carried about a lot. "Of course you will," he agreed as he settled his baby brother on the hip opposite to the one where his sword hung. "And you," he said to Yahiko, his grin stretching. "You _will_ learn how to say 'kick butt' today."

"Naruto," Kagome scolded. "It's bad enough you have the twins thinking nothing of saying such things, I don't want Yahiko's first words to be 'kick butt', however overdue he is to say anything at all. You already somehow managed it with Shippo."

"Ki buh!" Yahiko burbled out just then.

Naruto laughed proudly as Kagome sighed – though there was a smile on her face as well.

"That's right Yahiko," he praised. "Kick butt!"

Umino coughed pointedly, reminding them all that they were still in the missions office.

"Alright," Hatake said as he scooped Rin up into his arms, little shinai and all. "We're off to training ground seven with the Himuras for the day, and will escort them home at five, as per the mission request."

Kagome nodded. "Thank you, Hatake-san, Team Seven," she said formally with a nod, then turned to Umino. "Team Eight request a D-rank mission."

With Yahiko on his hip, Tomoe and Shippo skipping on either side of him waving their shinai around, Hatake up front with Rin, and his team-mates following behind, Naruto went with Team Seven to their training grounds, totally prepared for a day of fun with his family. Fun that would very likely involve the total humiliation of his team-mates at the hands of his younger siblings.


	7. Chapter 7

Hatake set Rin down, and took Yahiko from Naruto. The blonde removed his shinai, old as it was to him now, from the seal he had stored it in earlier that day. Hatake moved to sit with the toddler by a tree.

"Sensei, what do we do?" Haruno asked.

"For now," Hatake answered her, "you watch."

Uchiha grunted, but as much as he didn't care for the assignment they had been given that day, babysitting was still their assigned mission, and so he sat down to watch as Naruto took on three of his four younger siblings... all at once.

It wasn't the stupid play-fighting he'd expected though. The three children all charged their younger brother in a co-ordinated attack, they forced him on the defensive. Any time he moved to block one, another would strike, and then the boy, Shippo, got behind Naruto and struck him across his backside.

Naruto's bright blue eyes went almost comically wide as he threw himself forward. On the ground, he was quickly dog-piled.

"We kicked Aniki's butt!" the three children sang happily.

Naruto, beneath them all, laughed and rolled over. Somehow he gathered them all onto his stomach as he did, rather than just dumping them off.

"Yes you did," he praised them as he sat up. "You kicked my butt. I'll have to try harder next time. Now, which of my team-mates are you going to kick the butt of first?"

The children shared a whispered conference for a moment before they looked over to the where the two genin sat with their sensei and the youngest Himura.

"The girl who looks like a sore thumb," Tomoe answered.

"Sore thumb?!" Haruno yelped.

"You're dressed in bright red," Shippo explained simply, and gave a shrug. "And you have _lots_ of pink hair over that wide forehead. Do you use polish on it, to get it that shiny?"

"Come on Haruno," Naruto called as he stood and brushed himself off, deliberately ignoring the way her face was changing colour to match her hair, then her dress. "Your turn. My sweet little sisters and my clever little brother need to practice against different sorts of opponents."

Naruto took Yahiko from Hatake before he sat down between his sensei and his other team-mate, while Haruno prepared to soundly trounce the little brats that had insulted her.

"Can you say 'Aniki'?" Naruto asked Yahiko, half an eye on the battle between his siblings and his team-mate, just to make sure it didn't get out of hand.

Uchiha, he noticed for the first time that day, actually twitched at the word, a scowl pulling at his face.

"I thought you were teaching Yahiko to say 'kick butt'," Hatake commented, a smile in his voice, and likely on his face as well, though only the way his eye crinkled slightly at the corner would indicate the latter.

"Kick buh!" Yahiko repeated dutifully, a grin on his face.

Naruto chuckled. "He's clearly got 'kick butt' down just fine," he observed to his sensei.  
"Kick buh!" Yahiko agreed, waving a small fist around in the air.

"Aniki," Naruto said gently. "I'm your aniki."

Yahiko pouted for a moment. "An-ki?" he asked.

"Close enough for now," Naruto allowed with a fond smile. "Oh look, Haruno is getting _her_ butt kicked."

"It's three on one," Uchiha pointed out. "And she isn't a very good ninja. Besides, they beat you."

Hatake laughed, earning himself a glare from Uchiha, one that demanded to know why the jounin was laughing.

"Naruto-kun _let_ his younger siblings win," Hatake explained.

"Don't tell them that," Naruto requested lightly. "I 'try harder' every time they manage to get me on the ground, and they do genuinely get better every time. They'd be very upset if they found out I was deliberately taking a fall as soon as I was satisfied with how much they'd advanced since the last time they kicked their aniki's butt."

"Kick buh!" Yahiko declared happily.

Naruto kissed his youngest brother on the head. "That's right, and your brother and sisters are _really_ kicking Haruno's butt," he declared proudly.

They were too. Haruno was just chasing them around, trying (and failing) to hit them with her feet and her fists. Her advantage of having the longer limbs was negated by the shinai that the kids were all brandishing, the Himuras were faster than Haruno too.

"Are you sure she's a genin, Aniki?" Shippo asked when Haruno was on the ground, laid out by a crack to the back of her head from Rin's shinai.

Naruto shrugged. "She has a hitae-ate," he pointed out. "Maybe Uchiha will last longer?" he suggested, and smirked at the other boy who was on his team.

Uchiha grunted, but stood, and though he started off restraining himself against Naruto's three younger siblings, he was soon going all out. Even used a fire ninjutsu against Shippo, except that just gave him a flaming shinai to attack with, which Shippo was quite pleased to use while the fire lasted.

When Sasuke had removed his burning shirt and patted out the other small flames that had caught on his other clothes, Tomoe slammed him in the solar plexus, winding the boy.

"Kick butt!" Yahiko cheered, finally getting it right.

Haruno and Uchiha growled at their humiliation, while Hatake and the Himuras all laughed, the siblings singing Yahiko's praises when they caught their breath long enough to do so.

"Ah, lunch time, I think, ne?" Hatake suggested when he'd calmed his laughter.

~oOo~

"Dad!" Naruto yelped in fear when Kenshin stumbled through the door of their home, supported on one side by Shikamaru and on the other by Chouji, while Ino held the door.

Kagome had hurried out of the kitchen at her eldest's yell, and gasped at the sight that greeted her in the entry-way. "Kenshin!" she cried, and hurried to take her husband's weight from his students.

"I'm home," he said, his voice tired and a little weak, though there was a smile on his face. "And I'm not hurt," he added.

"Welcome home," Kagome answered as she choked back tears.

"What happened?" Naruto asked the genin.

"We got caught in an unexpected rain-storm," Ino started. "Kenshin-sensei gave us his outer kimono to shelter under while he looked for a cave we could wait out the weather in."

"Then, once he'd found one, he had to get all of us there, and while we slept, Kenshin-sensei stayed awake, keeping watch in case of bandits or wild animals," Chouji added.

"He was coughing the next morning when the rain had cleared up, and about an hour before we reached the gates, he just fell over," Shikamaru explained. "He's got a fever."

"Thank you for bringing him home," Kagome said to Team Ten, genuine gratitude and relief in every line of her face. "Would you like to stay for dinner, or just return to your own families?"

"Sensei's home safe," Ino said with a shrug. "I should let my family know that I am too."

Chouji nodded in agreement, and the pair stepped out again.

"Ah, I'd like to help, if I can," Shikamaru offered. "I know you've got a big family, and Sensei isn't at his best right now."

Kagome smiled gratefully. "If you could roll out the futon, that would be helpful. Naruto, let the others know that Kenshin is sick, and they need to play quietly?" she requested. "And put Yahiko to bed?"

"Yes Mother," Naruto agreed. "Then I'll get a bowl of cold water and some cloths, and sit with Father."

"We can play shogi," Kenshin suggested weakly. "Shikamaru-kun, you are welcome to join us."

"Thank you, Kenshin-sensei."

Shikamaru took over Kenshin's side of the shogi game when the fever and exhaustion got the best of the man, and stayed for dinner with the Himuras, after which Kagome took over changing the cloth on her husband's brow, and Naruto walked Shikamaru back to the Nara compound.

~oOo~

"Team Seven," the Hokage said solemnly when Hatake brought his genin squad before him for a mission again.

"Hokage-sama," they answered, just as solemnly, catching on that whatever they were about to be told was something more serious than usual.

"The boy Haku, who Naruto brought back from Wave, has been certified by the department of Torture and Interrogation, and has accepted the offer to become a citizen of Konohagakure. In six months, he may apply to become a shinobi of Konohagakure. Until then, he needs a place to stay, and something to occupy his time."

"I am willing to house the boy, Hokage-sama," Hatake offered, recognising that such was expected of him, given the conversation and his own record. He was good at watching, observing, seeing things.

"And we could use an extra set of hands in our shop," Naruto added thoughtfully. "He knows something of medicinal herbs, so he wouldn't be completely out of his depth."

The Hokage nodded, pleased with this. "I'm glad that's sorted out then," he said. "Kakashi, you can collect Haku from Ibiki this evening at five. I have already given another team the D-rank mission of collecting the basic supplies that the boy will require."

"So our mission is...?" Haruno asked hopefully.

"Dog walking," the Hokage answered, easily and promptly.

Haruno slumped, while Uchiha gritted his teeth in frustration.

~oOo~

Hatake had dismissed the team early, and Naruto was enjoying a peaceful day in the sunshine when he heard a quiet collision.

"Unf!" a young voice complained.

"Watch where you're going," scolded an older voice.

Naruto cocked his head in curiosity, and turned the corner, curious to see what was going on. What he saw was a boy a bit older than him, wearing a lot of black and the symbol of Suna, picking up a little kid by the scarf wrapped around his neck. A girl with her sandy-blonde hair in four bunches, with a Suna hitae-ate around her neck, was a bit behind him.

"That hurt, brat," the black-clad teen scolded the boy as he held him aloft.

"Will you stop it before we get in trouble?" the girl asked harshly, looking about her nervously.

"You will put him down gently," Naruto instructed clearly as he walked up to them, drawing their attention to him shortly after he had thrown one of the few kunai he actually carried around. A specialised one that his birth-father had left to him. It was key to one of his birth-father's techniques, one that had been _very_ difficult to master.

In addition to the little boy that was being held up by his scarf, there were two other kids his same age. The trio were all about the same age as Shippo and Tomoe, and actually, he recognised them from introductions that the twins had given when he'd gone to collect them from the Academy the first time. No, he would not let such young children be bullied in his sight.

"Oh will I?" the older teen sneered, the purple kabuki paint on his face making the sneer even more impressive.

"Yes you will," Naruto confirmed, promise in his voice. "Or I will give you trouble." In a flash of yellow, Naruto vanished from in front of the foreign ninja, surprising both of the foreign shinobi and the trio of children. "You may find it quite difficult to be a shinobi with only one hand," he finished as he slid his sword under the foreigner's wrist, between sleeve and glove.

"Ch," the older boy sneered, and dropped the kid.

"And why aren't you three in class right now?" Naruto asked the trio as he subtly reclaimed the kunai and obviously re-sheathed his sword. "I know for a fact that the Academy doesn't let out for another two hours."

The children gulped nervously, then turned and ran off.

"I apologise for the threat, but it would be bad politics if a Suna shinobi decided to cause harm to a Konoha civilian. Especially if the Suna shinobi is..." Naruto lifted the identification card that he'd pick-pocketed from the older boy – a card required to be carried by any shinobi that was in a shinobi village not their own. "... the eldest son of the Kazekage, and the Konoha civilian is the grandson of the Hokage. They would no doubt be very upset about having to deal with even more paperwork than usual."

The older boy winced, growled, and snatched back his identification card.

Naruto smiled and stepped around the Kazekage's eldest son to greet the girl.

"Pleased to meet you," he said, and bowed politely. "I'm Naruto. May I ask your name, and what brings a lovely desert flower such as yourself to Konoha?"

The girl blushed a little. "T-Temari," she said. "My name is Temari, and I'm here for the chuunin exam. This is my older brother Kankurou, he's one of my team-mates."

"You are here early," Naruto noted, though he was smiling still. "None of the jounin sensei here have even mentioned it yet. Can I interest you in a tour of the village? Or I know a place that does a wonderful beef stew," he offered. "Of course, _both_ of your team-mates are welcome to join us," he added, looking first to the Kazekage's eldest, and then up at a shadow that was hanging upside-down in a near-by tree.

"Gah- Gaara," the Kazekage's eldest stuttered nervously.

"My little brother," Temari presented nervously. "Gaara. Gaara?" she called. "Would... would you like..."  
"We didn't come here to fool around," Gaara answered her lowly, dangerously, before dissolving into sand and reappearing before his two older siblings. His two older siblings who seemed much more on edge around him than they had been a moment ago. "However, a tour and some beef stew _is_ a good idea," he allowed. "We need to find somewhere to train, and to eat, in the time before the exam begins."

Naruto nodded in acquiescence, and tucked his hands into his kimono, letting his sleeves hang from his elbows as he began to walk.

~oOo~

"Good morning, my cute students," Hatake greeted, a smile hidden behind his mask.

"Good afternoon, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto corrected politely, a small, amused smirk in plain view on his face. "Your clock is very slow, or did time get away from you, bandaging your injuries from where Haku-kun punished you for your reading material?"

"Ara," Hatake agreed a little sheepishly. "But! I have important news!" he declared, distracting the conversation from his new house-guest.

"Important news you couldn't even be on time to deliver?" Haruno demanded with a growl.

"I've nominated all three of you for the chuunin exam," Hatake announced, ignoring Haruno's grumbling. "Here are the forms that will get you in, if you want to participate. Personal choice, no pressure, you just sign the application, then in five days, you go to room three-oh-one at the Academy by three in the afternoon. That's all."

"That's _not_ all, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto countered. "The chuunin exams are being held in Konoha this time, rather than some other village, so we'll have a little bit of a home-ground advantage against other genin that have come here to test. It's not as bad as going to another village and bombing out there, and if we don't get through this time, then it's good experience for when the next chuunin exam comes around."

Hatake nodded. "All of that is true," he agreed. "And if you do make it to chuunin, then you will have the option of taking more C-rank missions."

"More missions like the one to Wave?" Haruno asked, unsure if she was really all that keen on such a prospect.

"Aa," Hatake said with a shake of his head. "The mission to Wave was more a B- or A-rank mission, because of the enemy ninja. Most C-ranks don't have things like that happen."

"Just try it, Haruno," Naruto advised, aware but judiciously not saying that they needed the full team to actually be admitted to the exam. "While it's being held in Konoha. If you make it, then you'll know you have the skills to handle the harder missions. If you don't, well, no big deal, and you'll know what sort of thing to _really_ expect. You've still got two more months before your chance to retire from shinobi life escapes you."

"It will be a good chance to test ourselves," Uchiha agreed.

Haruno bit her lower lip in thought, raised a hand to her chin, and finally nodded. "I'll try," she decided, and took the nomination paper from Hatake, resolve settling in her eyes.

"Wonderful!" Hatake declared happily. "Now, training. What will we do today? Ah, I know, laps! Up and down the trees until your legs give out, and then we'll move on to working your arms until they feel as weak as over-cooked noodles."

Naruto was the only one that didn't groan at the prospect, but then, he put in a lot of extra training outside of when the team was assembled as well.

~oOo~

"Ano, Naruto-kun," Haruno said when he just kept walking, rather than stopping to see why the crowd was gathered. "Room three-oh-one is -"  
"On the next floor up," Naruto cut her off softly. "Don't make a scene, just keep walking. Uchiha, let the fools get stuck here. Less competition later."

"Un," Uchiha grunted in agreement, and turned away. He _had_ been about to call out the duo who were blocking the way with their illusionary technique, but there was more than one way up to the third floor, and Naruto had a good point.

Quietly, his team followed behind him until they reached the real room three-oh-one, and Naruto pushed open the door.

"So many," Haruno said softly. "And they're all taking the chuunin exam?"

"They wouldn't be in this room otherwise," Naruto confirmed. "And you will notice, Haruno, that not one of them is wearing bright red."

He'd been on her case about that since just about the day they'd been assigned to the same team, and she had yet to actually do anything about it. Likewise, Uchiha still wore the uchiwa symbol of his all-but-extinct family. As for Naruto himself, he'd chosen to wear an earthy brown kimono with his grey hakama that day.

"Sasuke-kun!"

The exclamation of female delight was all the warning that Team Seven had before Uchiha found himself with a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders and most of the weight of a second person on his back. Naruto recognised the female of his father's students. Yamanaka Ino.

"Oh, I missed you," Yamanaka cooed as she pressed her front to his back, "and since I heard that you were taking the chuunin exam too, I've really been looking forward to is as a chance for us to catch up."

"Get away from Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!" Haruno yelled.

"Oh, it's you, Sakura. Your forehead is still wide and you're still ugly, as usual," Ino teased lazily as she lowered herself to the ground again, though she kept herself firmly pressed to Uchiha's side, and had one arm still draped across his back and over the opposite shoulder.

"What did you say?!" Haruno growled.

Naruto sighed and stepped away from his team. He'd spotted some of his own year-mates further in, and hoped to be able to talk to them a little before the exam actually started.

"Are you taking this troublesome exam too?" a familiar voice asked, way-laying him briefly.

"Shikamaru-kun," Naruto greeted. "Chouji-kun," he added when he noticed the other boy on his father's team. "Yes, I'm taking the exam this time, while I have a team to take it with."

"Yaho! Everybody's here!" declared another voice, loudly. The Inuzuka on his mother's team, his dog riding on his head, and his team-mates at his sides.

"Mn," Naruto answered simply. "All the rookies entered for the first time in five years, and you're being loud and attracting attention on top of that," he cautioned lightly. "Shino-kun, Shikamaru-kun, Hinata-san, good luck."

"Aa," Shikamaru acknowledged. "You too."

"Mm," Shino agreed with an otherwise silent nod.

Hinata smiled and bobbed her head in gratitude. "You also, Himura-kun."

Naruto moved away from the group that included his team, and went to greet a team of genin that he had graduated with.

"Naruto-kun," cooed a soft female voice.

"Hello, Tenten-chan," Naruto answered with a smile. "Lee, Neji, you are both well?"  
"Yes," Lee answered with a grin. "And we have been training hard!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow slightly as he looked pointedly at the bandages around Lee's hands. He remembered very clearly how hard Lee trained, in order to make up for his deficiency in natural skill and utter inability to mould chakra in the traditional sense. He turned to Neji.

"Who drags him home at the end of the day?" he asked.

Neji snorted. "Drags him home? Three nights a week he's out with sensei training without rest until we come back in the morning," he answered, and though his tone was a little derisive, the smirk on his face told how proud he really was of how far his friend and team-mate had come since they'd graduated.

"Where are Nazuna and Katsuhiro?" Tenten asked, eyes scanning the room hopefully.

"They retired," Naruto answered shortly, drawing the attention of Tenten very quickly with those two little words, as well as focusing the gazes of Lee and Neji. "Two months in. Anji-sensei was killed making sure we could get away when a C-rank went bad. Now they're both doing what their parents wanted."

Naruto's old team-mates had both been from civilian families that had, initially, wanted the status that came with having a ninja in the family. Until they realised just what that meant. Then they wanted their children to give up such a dangerous lifestyle and come home where it was safe, and learn the family business. For Nazuna, that was working in a restaurant – the one where Naruto always went for the best beef stew outside of his parent's cooking. For Katsuhiro, that was working in his parent's bookshop.

After Anji-sensei was killed, and they themselves only came back from that mission because Naruto had quite literally carried them, both Nazuna and Katsuhiro had been more than willing to agree to such wishes – and Naruto always got a discount as thanks for saving them.

"I'm afraid I'm attached to one of the rookie teams now," Naruto admitted with a rueful smile as he jerked his thumb over to where the rookies were still all gathered together. "Uchiha and the one with pink hair."

Tenten and Neji winced in sympathy, but it seemed that Lee was suffering from the sudden onset of a violent crush.

"What's her name?" Lee asked.

"The one with the pink hair? Haruno Sakura," Naruto answered. "And the girl is obsessed with Uchiha. We managed to break of dieting, but not of being a fangirl."

Lee sighed a little wistfully, but didn't say anything else. He knew better than to try and win over a fangirl's thinking. He was best friends with Hyuuga Neji, after all, and Neji had suffered from a large number of fangirls himself. Lee had been the one to really help Neji out with those girls, allowing himself to be used in a _kawarimi_, so that he got their amorous attentions when Neji couldn't stand it any more – before the girls screeched at him for not being Neji, and running off to find him.

"Just be patient Lee," Tenten counselled gently. "You'll find the right one. I know you will."

Lee nodded in acceptance and gratitude, even as his eyes returned to the rookies. "Something is happening," he noted.

"I'm not gonna lose to anybody here!" Kiba declared to the other rookies. He was loud enough for the whole room to hear him.

Naruto sighed. "I'd better get back to my foolish team-mates," he said.

Tenten, Lee and Neji all chuckled sympathetically.

"Good luck, Naruto-kun," Tenten bid, and gave him a quick hug before she let him go back to the rookies.

"He doesn't need luck," Neji scoffed lightly as Naruto left. "He needs patience."

"Well, he's always had plenty of both, so it's not a problem," Lee quipped with a bright grin.


	8. Chapter 8

"Ne ne, Daddy!" Rin chirped as they sat down for dinner. "Aniki is taking the chuunin exam soon!"

"That he is," Kenshin agreed with a smile. "My students, and your mother's students, are also participating, just like she and I did when we wanted to move up from being genin to being chuunin, back before we became jounin."

"You took the same test that Aniki is going to take?" Shippo pressed.

"It will be a bit different for Naruto," Kagome corrected with a smile at said son. "When we took the chuunin exam, the first stage was proctored by Yamanaka-sama. His daughter, who is in Daddy's genin squad, is participating this time, so he can't be involved with the exam in any way."

"So who's proctor for the first stage this year?" Naruto asked, unable to hold himself back from asking any longer.

Kenshin chuckled. "Morino Ibiki-kun will be in charge of the first stage, paper test that is part of the chuunin exam," he explained.

"Your boss?" Naruto queried, surprised.

"I haven't worked with Morino-kun since I became sensei for my team," Kenshin corrected with a shake of his head. "As a sensei, I get a regular pay for teaching, supervising, and leading the genin, while at the same time I get extra money from every mission that my team completes. I don't need to work with Morino-kun for regular, safe work any more, and besides, I can hardly bring rookie genin into the Torture and Interrogation department."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Going by Morino-san's reputation in the Bingo Book," Naruto mused softly to himself, "and by Yamanaka-sama's, the first test is probably psychological as well, since they both work in Torture and Interrogation."

Kagome nodded. "Well done Naruto," she praised. "That's very good."

"They are looking for shinobi who can be what a chuunin needs to be," Kenshin pointed out. "And that includes being mentally ready for the position and its responsibilities."

So Naruto had prepared for an impossibly difficult paper test, and psychological attacks, which brought him to his current state.

Naruto breathed deeply and forcibly calmed himself as he finished writing the last answer on the paper in front of him, then turned it over. There was still time on the clock for other genin in the room to potentially try and cheat off his sheet. Most of his answers, he had figured out for himself, for the few he couldn't, Naruto had very carefully – as instructed – cheated to get the answers for. It might have been difficult to spot, but Naruto had heard the subtext. "If you cheat without thinking... behave as ninja!"

Naruto set his hands over the blank side of the sheet and focused his gaze on the man who had been his father's boss for so many years. He was certainly an imposing figure, but actually, Naruto thought that a member of his squad was more unnerving than Morino himself. The one that had bandaged his head from the bridge of his nose _up_, and wore his hitae-ate over his eyes.

And despite obviously not being able to see, he'd still called out five of the numbers of people who he'd caught cheating one time too many.

He was going to ask his dad what that shinobi's name _was_ when he got home, and hope that he hadn't come in since Kenshin had left the Torture and Interrogation department.

"... you are all going to choose if you wish to take the tenth problem or not," Morino announced to them. "A free pass to walk out that door and try again in six months. If you stay and get it wrong, however, we won't bother grading your tests, because your point tally will be reduced to zero. You and your team-mates will be out."

Naruto folded his arms across his chest calmly within his sleeves and sat back, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Morino was the _head_ of the Torture and Interrogation department, after all, even if he hadn't been when Kenshin first started working with the man.

"As a bonus, because you all got so unlucky that _I_ am the one making the rules this time," Morino said, his wicked smirk becoming a dastardly grin, "anybody who chooses to take the tenth question, and fails to get it right, _will_ be barred from ever taking the chuunin exam _ever_ again."

And that would be the other shoe hitting the ground. Now the thing to do would be to watch the other genin drop out, and after the first one begged to be excused, after the first had given in, others followed his example. They dropped like flies.

~oOo~

"Just because your life and the lives of your team-mates may be in danger, are you able to avoid dangerous missions? The answer is: _no_. There are missions that carry heavy risks, that may even appear suicidal, if you think on it," Morino informed them coldly.

The majority of the genin in the room had been sweating since shortly into the test. Some continued to sweat a little more at Morino's speech.

"We, as shinobi, do not think on such things as the worth of our own lives, but for the good of the village we think instead of the goal. These missions, however impossible they may seem, cannot be avoided," Morino declared, stating inescapable fact. "The ability to show your courage to your team-mates when needed, self-discipline, and the ability to get through a bad situation, that is what we look for in a chuunin. A leader."

Naruto heard the genin behind him swallow tensely, while some others sat up taller in their seats.

"Those who would take the cowards way out, who would risk their comrades lives for the sake of their own, who give up when given the chance because there is a next time, who let themselves think of an uncertain future, those who cannot stand to bet against the chances of fate, these people have no right to become chuunin," Morino growled. "You who remain, you who have chosen correctly, who have passed my test, I wish you luck. The first phase of the chuunin exam is complete."

Around the room, there were genin who slumped in their seats with relief. It was confirmed, the first phase was over and they were still in the exam.

Then the proctor for the second stage burst through the window.

"Are you getting soft, Ibiki-kun?" asked a woman who was quite familiar to the Himura family, though unfortunately it had been a long time since she'd paid them a visit. "To let so many teams pass?"

"Would you get to have as much fun if there were less of them?" Morino countered with a smirk.

Anko snorted in amusement as she mirrored his expression. "True," she agreed. "This is going to be fun. I'll enjoy cutting their numbers down by more than half."

"M-more than half?" Naruto heard Haruno whimper from a few rows behind him. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Alright you maggots!" Anko snapped at them. "You've had it easy so far, but that's going to change. First thing in the morning, you're mine. Your squad leaders know where you're going to meet me," she informed them sharply, before she smiled sweetly. "Dismissed," she purred.

"She's crazy!" Haruno yelled quietly once Team Seven had come together outside of the Academy building.

Naruto chuckled. "She also doesn't wear a bra or panties beneath that mesh suit of hers," he quipped.

"While the first was rather obvious, how did you know about the second?" Haruno growled.

Naruto grinned widely. "I asked," he told her. "Back when she was my babysitter and I was a cute little four-year-old gaki that she just couldn't find it in herself to get mad at."

Uchiha tripped over his own feet, and blood slowly pooled on the ground beneath his face.

"Sasuke-kun!"

~oOo~

"Creepy," Haruno observed with a shiver as she looked out into the fenced-off training ground where the next stage of the exam was being held. "What is this place?"  
"Training ground forty-four," Naruto answered easily. "Kakashi-sensei told us already. If you want the other name for it though...?" he led off with a smirk.

"What is it?" Uchiha demanded.

"This is the Forest of Death," Anko informed them all just then. "And you are all going to get the chance to find out why we call it the Forest of Death."

Haruno looked distinctly discomforted by that.

Naruto was more impressed by the subtle, eerie wind that blew dramatically, right on cue with Anko's pronouncement. Looking in the direction the breeze had come from, Naruto bit back laughter and restrained his smirk. There was a senior shinobi off to the side with his hands still in the bird seal.

The man quickly dropped it when he saw Naruto looking, and gave a jaunty little wave before he disappeared with a _shunshin._

"Before you can do that though," Anko continued, drawing Naruto's attention back to her. "You have to sign these consent forms. After all, this is the Forest of Death, and you could die in there. In fact, it is practically certain that some of you will. I don't need the paperwork that would come with being held responsible for that. So, if you don't sign these consent forms, then you're not going in, and the chuunin exam will end for you here."

Local, Konoha genin considered the forest with some nerves. Foreign genin looked up at the forest with distaste, and in more than a few disbelief as well. Konoha was well known as a peaceful shinobi village, as far as such a reputation went. Other shinobi villages called them 'tree huggers' and scoffed at how soft the shinobi of the leaf were.

They would all still read the consent form carefully once Anko had finished explaining the test to them, which was a no-holds barred battle for ownership of a pair of scrolls, called 'heaven' and 'earth', which they had to bring to the tower in the middle of the forest within five days.

"What about food?" Chouji begged when he heard the time-limit.

"That's your problem," Anko informed them shortly. "There's plenty to eat in there if you know what's what."

"But there are also a lot of man-eating beasts, and poisonous plants and insects," an older Konoha genin said.

"That's why it's called survival," Ino scolded her team-mate softly.

"It's also impossible that thirteen teams, the maximum that possibly could, actually would pass," Neji noted, throwing in his two cents worth.

"As time passes, you have to keep on the move, resting less," Lee observed. "Looks tough," he said with an eager grin.

"And with enemies all around us, we won't be able to sleep in peace," Uchiha said lowly.

"People will get hurt," Anko agreed, "and those who cannot bear this program's strictness will be found out as well."

Shikamaru raised his hand, a question on his lips. "Can we quit in between?" he asked.

"As a rule, no," Anko informed him shortly. "Just like you can't give up on a mission, you're not allowed to give up during the exam."

"But... didn't Kakashi-sensei tell Tazuna-san that he would abandon the mission when circumstances changed?" Haruno asked Naruto in a whisper, confused.

"C-ranks aren't often vital to the village, so they can be abandoned if the client has lied about the details. It doesn't ever look good for the village to do so though," Naruto explained, just as softly. "Kakashi-sensei mostly just suggested it for bluff, to get Tazuna-san talking."

"Oh."

"On the subject of rules, this exam does have a couple," Anko called over them. "First, a team that cannot bring both scrolls to the tower will fail. Second, the team that loses a team-mate, or reaches the tower with an unrecoverable team-mate, will fail. Those are the rules. And on a side-note, you're not allowed to open the scrolls until you reach the tower. This will test your reliability, as chuunin often have to handle top-secret information. You can exchange three consent forms for a scroll at that hut," she informed them, and pointed to the hut in question.

Three chuunin were waiting at a long desk in the open to perform the trade, and there was a curtain attached that they would, shortly, draw across, so that no one would see which teams were given which scroll.

"After that, you'll pick a gate to leave from, and everyone will begin at the same time," Anko concluded, then sighed heavily. "And one last piece of advice," she added, as though she didn't particularly want to say this bit. "Don't die!"

~oOo~

"Let me make this perfectly clear," Naruto said, his voice soft as he stood with his team-mates at their gate. "While we are in there, I will not permit either of you to die, become incapacitated, or even get separated from the team."

"Hai, Naruto-sempai," Haruno answered, the tension in her shoulders easing a little.

"Hai, Naruto-sempai," Uchiha agreed. He may not like it, but Naruto had graduated the year ahead of them, and as such he was the one with the greatest experience on their team. It was always Naruto who took the lead on missions when Hatake stepped back to only supervise, and they had both fallen into the habit of calling him sempai when he stepped up to that position.

His calling them kohai every so often helped to remind them of his minor seniority over them.

"The first thing we have to do in there is find water," Naruto informed them.

"Eh? What about the scrolls?" Haruno questioned.

"Scrolls will come to us," Naruto countered with a shake of his head. "We are some of the youngest genin taking this exam, and certain aspects of our appearance -" he looked pointedly at Sakura's long pink hair and bright red dress, "- make us look less than professional, and therefore weak. We will be first choice to target for a lot of the older teams."

"So we'll be reacting to attacks, rather than going on the attack ourselves," Uchiha realised.

Naruto nodded. "We just need to find water, and the tower. Everything else will come to us," he agreed, a frown on his face. "Which means we need to be hyper-aware of our surroundings at all times, always prepared for an attack."

"Like... like the first time Kakashi-sensei fought Momochi?" Haruno asked, suddenly nervous.

"Relax little kohai," Naruto advised with a chuckle. "There shouldn't be anybody as strong as Momochi in this exam."

"I noticed you said _shouldn't_, not _won't_," Uchiha pointed out.

Naruto shrugged. "We're shinobi," he said. "Nothing is certain, but you must always act as though your enemy is stronger than you, being _smart_ to make up the difference."

"Hai, Naruto-sempai," Uchiha and Haruno replied sharply.

The chuunin with the key to their gate smirked at them, a little impressed with these kids despite himself, and checked his watch. He turned to unlock the gate, keeping a sharp eye on the second hand.

The seconds stretched out in tense silence before the gate was opened, and the second phase of the chuunin exam was begun.

~oOo~

"Naruto."  
"Neji."

Both teams had found water, but they'd found each other at the same time.

"Don't even think about it," Neji warned, his pale eyes narrowing at the blonde.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at his friend. "Pick-pocket a Hyuuga?" he questioned, an amused smile tickling one corner of his mouth. "You think very highly of my skills."

Tenten giggled. "Neji _knows_ your skills, first hand," she reminded him. "And we all know you're the type to keep on improving those skills."

"Mm," Naruto hummed happily. "True," he allowed. "Ah, but Tenten-chan, you keep your own clever fingers away from my seals. You might get a nasty surprise instead of the scroll you're hoping to find."

Tenten gave a 'mou' and produced a cute little pout, but set about the task of filling her water-bottle instead of continuing to try to reach Naruto and give him a hug.

"You know these people?" Haruno asked Naruto caught between being nervous and incredulous.

"Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten-chan," Naruto presented, "these are my kohai, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."

"We graduated together," Lee added to Haruno, and gave a bright smile and a thumbs-up.

Naruto chuckled, nodded, and reached out to Neji. "Good luck finding your earth scroll," he said, fist extended.

Neji bumped his own closed, bandage-covered fist companionably against Naruto's. "You too," he agreed. "It's nice to know _one_ team that isn't our enemy for this."

"So, what's your plan?" Naruto asked, settling down comfortably.

"Since we've managed to secure food and water in the first twelve hours, and a lot of other teams will be resting right now, so we'll use this time to our advantage," Neji explained.

"We're going to split up and scout," Lee revealed. "Then re-group and share what we find, if we find anything."

Tenten pulled out a kunai and threw it into the ground. "And this is where we'll meet up again."

"What about you?" Neji asked.

Naruto chuckled. "We will walk slowly towards the tower, and wait for some fools to attack us," he answered. "You know they'll come, my little kohai are too tempting a target for the rough, tough, older and more experienced veterans of this exam."

The only-slightly more senior team laughed in agreement.

"Well, see you at the tower Naruto," Neji bid, and looked to his own team-mates. "Break!"

"Ja ne!" Naruto called softly after them when they had vanished, leaving only Tenten's kunai behind.

"Ano, Naruto-sempai, how did you know what scroll they needed?" Haruno asked. "For that matter, how did they know we needed the same?"

"When Lee gave his thumbs-up, he was letting me know what they had. If he didn't make the thumbs up, then they would have had an earth scroll. When I nodded back, I let them know we had the same as they did."

"You're friends with them," Uchiha said flatly.

Naruto nodded. "We were in the same class before we graduated together," he said as he started them walking again, leaving behind a kunai of his own. It was a secure location for if they needed to retreat quickly, after all. "We don't get to catch up much though, since their sensei keeps them busy with missions and training. I should ask next time what Neji has been doing that only his dominant hand is bandaged like that."

"Hyuuga Neji... he's part of Hinata-chan's clan, right?" Haruno asked.

"Hyuuga Hinata? She's Neji's cousin," Naruto agreed. "Their fathers are twin brothers, and I understand that the whole family is very close since a Cloud nin tried to kidnap Hinata-san."

"Kidnap?!" Haruno exclaimed softly, knowing better than to yell in their situation.

Naruto nodded. "Cloud want the Hyuuga bloodline, so they tried to steal it," he explained, and looked over at Uchiha. "That's why I'm always going on about you wearing the uchiwa on your back. It's like begging someone to go after you, letting them know you have the potential to wield the sharingan, even if you haven't actually activated it yet."

Uchiha stopped walking, a frown on his face, before he pulled off his shirt. He replaced it quickly enough, though inside out, so that the symbol of his dead family couldn't be seen any more.

Naruto breathed a little easier. He'd finally gotten through to _one_ of them, at least.

~oOo~

It was dark when the first attacker made their entrance. It was a massive snake, however, rather than an enemy shinobi, and it went straight for Naruto. The snake didn't quite get that far though, much to the surprise of the blonde's team-mates.

"N-Naruto-sempai? What... what just...?" Haruno tried.

"This is one of the techniques I inherited from my family," Naruto explained as he considered the chakra chains that had wrapped around the giant snake's head, and attached it to five different trees, preventing the giant reptile from moving forward, though its body and tail still lashed around dangerously. "Chakra chains. It was damn hard to learn."

"Sure looks useful though," Uchiha noted.

"Especially since the sharingan can't copy it," Naruto quipped, and directed a smirk at Uchiha. "It's pure chakra manipulation, like tree- and water-walking. You can't learn those with the sharingan, and you can't learn this with it either. Well, let's keep moving. I've got to release that snake at some point, or I'll pass out from chakra exhaustion."

"Because you're constantly maintaining the chains..." Haruno realised softly.

Naruto nodded.

Their first encounter with an enemy shinobi followed not long after their encounter with the snake. The shinobi was alone, and wore the hitae-ate of a shinobi from Grass. He also blatantly showed them the scroll he was carrying.

"You want an Earth Scroll, right?" he asked, showing them that he had that scroll, the one they needed.

"Naruto-sempai?" Haruno asked softly. "Is it just me, or is there something really creepy about this guy?"

"It's not just you," Uchiha said lowly.

"Mm," Naruto agreed. "And he's been spying on us. He knows what scroll we have. I'll bet if we needed the other scroll, he'd have produced that to tempt us with instead."

"You mean, he's already got both scrolls?" Haruno pressed.

"I'd put money on it," Naruto affirmed with a nod.

The older nin smirked, and lifted his scroll. He proceeded to wrap his impossibly long tongue around the scroll, and swallow it down.

"Now, let's fight to the death," he invited, and unleashed an incredible killing intent upon the three genin.

Haruno and Uchiha both froze, rendered utterly immobile and insensate by their enemy.

Naruto dashed forward at impossible speeds, speeds that he had never reached before that very moment. As he moved, he pulled his sword from its sheath and turned it backwards. That was not the killing intent of a genin. This was a dangerous enemy that had infiltrated the chuunin exams for some other purpose. He sliced through his enemy.

His father had taught him about the spirit of swordsmanship and of the swordsman. His mother had taught him about the raw power that came with the will to live, the desire to protect and of emotions projected through a person's aura. The teachers at the Academy all taught him about Konoha's Will of Fire. Anji-sensei taught him about the struggle of forever trying to improve the world, of seeking after righteousness in the destruction of the world they lived in. Kakashi-sensei had taught him how to bring all of these elements together in an instant, and to refine it into something even more potent than any individual element could be.

Naruto followed the sword with his hand, snatching up the scroll from the opened stomach of this enemy, before he ran back to his team-mates, who had only managed to fall to the ground.

Uchiha threw up.

Naruto spared a glance for the enemy. The shinobi was surprised to find his stomach sliced open, very surprised, and thankfully immobilised by the unexpected proficiency of the blonde genin with his sword. Naruto decided that running away now would be the best course of action, and as neither of his team-mates were in any condition to do that running for themselves right now, he pulled them both onto his back and took advantage of the fact that he'd left one special kunai beside the river.

In a flash of yellow, pink, and black, Team Seven were delivered to the relative safety of the river bank.

Naruto set his team-mates down by the water, cleaned his sword and sheathed it, then set about checking them both over.

"Are you alright?" he asked them. Over and over until he got a response. "Are you alright?"

"H-hai, thanks to you, Naruto-sempai," Haruno managed to answer straight away.

Uchiha took longer though.

"Naruto-sempai," Uchiha finally croaked out. "How did you even move under that pressure?"

"There are three standard responses to danger," Naruto said calmly. "They have been best observed in prey animals. Some of them freeze, holding perfectly still, hoping that the predator will pass them over. That is what the two of you did."

They both nodded in understanding.

"The second response is to run," Naruto continued. "Generally, this is implemented when the 'freeze' response has proven ineffective."

They nodded again, able to understand that as well.

"The third response is to fight," Naruto concluded. "I froze the very first time I felt killing intent, but after that I was trained by my parents out of that response. Now, I can generally control myself when faced with killing intent, like with Momochi in Wave. However, in those times when I can't control myself in the face of killing intent, my response is to fight, rather than freeze or run. Generally speaking, this takes the enemy by surprise enough that I can get a good strike in. It doesn't matter how good another shinobi is, if you can take them by surprise. In the face of a person with that much killing intent? They have generally come to expect one certain response, which _they_ take advantage of. The response to freeze, the response you displayed. Do you understand?"  
"Hai," Uchiha said softly. "Naruto-sempai, can you teach me to be like that?" he asked, voice subdued. "If I freeze up in a situation like that... I'll... I'll never be able to kill him."

"Kill who?" Naruto asked seriously. "Your brother? Is that why you became a shinobi? So that you could gain the skills to fulfil your own personal vendetta?"

Uchiha winced, and hung his head.

Naruto sighed. "If that is why you became a ninja, then you should retire from the shinobi forces," he advised. "Instead, hire people to train you privately, for that one fight alone. It will be better for you to do this. If you suddenly chased after him one day, abandoning a mission to do so, can you think of what that would mean for you?"

"Sasuke-kun would be declared a rogue ninja, and be hunted down," Haruno said softly, eyes wide.

"That's right," Naruto confirmed. Then, with another sigh, he dropped the subject. "Well, we've got the two scrolls we need. Now we just have to get to the tower. I think a straight run over the canopy would be a good idea, now that we aren't using our good looks as bait any more."

"Hai," the other two agreed gratefully.

"Wash the fear off," Naruto instructed, "and we'll move out. No stops until we reach the tower."

"... you didn't answer me," Uchiha said softly as he crouched by the water's edge.

Naruto pretended he hadn't heard the other boy.


	9. Chapter 9

Seven teams in total made it through the second exam before the time ran out. Naruto's team, the two teams his parents trained, and the team that his own fellow graduates were in, as well as a fifth Konoha team, a team from Sound, and the team from Sand that Naruto had given a tour of the village to. Seven teams were lined up in front of the proctors, assistant proctors, their jounin sensei, and the Hokage.

Only twenty-one genin left out of seventy-eight. Considerably less than half. Not quite single digits though.

"The true purpose of these exams is, in fact, a sort of civilised warfare between the allied nations," the Hokage told them gravely. "Back before the nations were allies, they were at war. To avoid wasting military power, our countries chose certain places to fight. These were the precursor to the modern chuunin exam. Yes, this exam is to see who is worth of the chuunin title, but it is also a place where ninja fight, and fight for their lives, carrying with them the pride and dignity of their nation."

"Nation?" Haruno asked softly. "Not just their village, but the whole country?"

"The third stage of the exam is held before an audience," the Hokage explained. "An audience which will include ranking officials, the rich, and the famous. Potential clients of the shinobi villages. As well as being a civilised form of war, and a way to see who is worthy of the title of chuunin, these exams are to showcase the excellence of the ninja that each village produces. A village with strong ninja will get more clients, and become richer. A village with weak ninja will lose clients. A village with stronger ninja will also have more political strength than a village with weak ninja. The power of a country is the power of its shinobi village. The power of a shinobi village is the power of the individual shinobi that serve it. The power of a shinobi is in truth only born in a life or death battle. That is why we do things in this way. This is how we maintain good relations with our neighbours and allies."

Another nin stepped forward.

"With your permission, Hokage-sama?"

The old man nodded.

"I am Gekkou Hayate, and I will be the proctor for the next stage of the exam. Before we get to that though, we've got to thin the ranks," the shinobi told them, coughing every now and then as he spoke, and wheezing towards the end of his sentences. "Too many of you have passed the second exam. Don't know why, don't much care. The point is, the third stage is a bit of a show for the potential clients, and we wouldn't want them to get bored."

"So, what's going to happen then?" Inuzuka asked.

"The third stage of the exam will be a series of one-on-one battles, before honoured guests," Gekkou said, then continued with a smirk. "To thin the ranks, we will have a series of one-on-one battles here. Immediately."

"But... we haven't even had a chance to get anything to eat!" Chouji objected from where he stood.

"Anybody who wishes to withdraw from the exam may do so," Gekkou offered. "With no repercussions for their team-mates. This is a strictly individual exam from here on out. So, does anybody want to quit?"

Uchiha raised his hand. "Yes," he said. "I would like to retire at this time."

Around the room, a number of people seemed to just about swallow their tongues in disbelief. The Uchiha boy was bowing out of the exam? So near to the final stage? It was shocking to say the least.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Gekkou noted. "A surprise, but you are excused all the same."

Uchiha lowered his hand. "I would like to watch and cheer for my team-mates," he added, which surprised a few more people, particularly ones that were familiar with the reputation of the late Uchiha clan.

Gekkou nodded all the same. "Very well," he agreed. "Anybody else?"

~oOo~

"Interesting way to phrase that," Hatake noted to Uchiha when they were all up on the viewing platforms together, out of the way of the battles that would soon begin in the arena below. "You would like to _retire_ at this time. Not just withdraw, but retire."

Uchiha nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "I've been thinking about it a while, actually, and Sempai said some things while we were in the forest. I'm not really cut out to be a shinobi. I want to learn how to kill my brother, for what he did to our family, but that's all I want. I don't want to be a tool of our village, going where I'm told to go and killing who I'm told to kill. Having to face enemy upon enemy like Momochi, regardless of if I'm capable or not. I don't want that," Uchiha admitted softly.

Hatake hummed in quiet acknowledgement, and lay a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Sasuke-kun," he admitted. "To figure out what you want, and realise that the way you've been trying to get it was wrong, and then changing your plan when you realised. That's an impressive thing."

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

A few paces over from where Hatake, Uchiha and Haruno were standing, the jounin leaders of teams Eight and Ten, as well as the genin who were under Maito Gai, were all extremely intent on the match that was about to begin on the arena below. The first fight of the preliminary matches was between Himura Naruto and an older genin who was called Akadou Yoroi.

Akadou was only particularly significant to Naruto's mind because he was a Konoha genin, and one of his team-mates had bowed out shortly after Uchiha had, though he left the building, rather than stay to watch his team-mates.

"So then," Gekkou said, "begin."

"Let's go!" Akadou growled, hands coming up in a seal in front of his face before he shifted down into a stance.

Naruto also shifted, legs apart, knees bent, right foot forward, left hand holding the scabbard of his sword while his right only barely touched the grip of his weapon. His usually big blue eyes had narrowed, his jaw was tensed, and his mouth held in a small but serious frown, transforming his face. To those who knew the boy's biological heritage, who had known personally Namikaze Minato, these people saw the Fourth Hokage standing before them again, despite the different clothing and weapons. Those who had not known of the connection, but who had known Naruto's biological father, saw the resemblance also, and they wondered about it in silent, surprised curiosity, all of them certain that the man hadn't had a wife, or even a girlfriend, let alone a son.

Akadou charged Naruto.

A glint of steel was all that preceded the larger genin's flight backwards into the floor several yards behind him. As he came to a halt, silence echoed around the room.

Naruto replaced his sword into his sheath and moved to check his opponent, since Gekkou seemed too surprised by the suddenness of it to remember to check himself. He frowned as he rolled Akadou over with a gentle kick.

"I think I may have damaged his spine," he admitted.

The words jolted Gekkou into fulfilling his duties, and he also checked Akadou's state. "You have," he confirmed. "The medics should be able to fix him up, though he'll probably be retired from the active shinobi lists." The man sighed, coughed, and straightened. "Winner, Himura Naruto."

~oOo~

Naruto was the first one to be confirmed for the third and final stage of the chuunin exam. Of course, he wasn't the last. After him, Shino defeated one of the Sound nin, then Shikamaru defeated another, both proving themselves to be true successors to their clans with the techniques they utilised. Akadou's team-mate was beaten by one of the genin from Sand, the eldest son of the Kazekage proved himself to be an excellent puppeteer and strategist.

The match between Haruno and Ino was interesting. Both girls had improved in vastly different ways, but their fight turning into a simple, if extremely violent, brawl that ended in a double-knock-out. It was damn close though.

Much more vicious was the following fight between Tenten and the kunoichi from Suna. These girls had been ninja for longer, and were more intense in their professionalism. Unfortunately for Tenten though, in a fight between a long-range weapons-user, and a long-range wind-user, the wind-user won out.

Inuzuka was the next of the Konoha rookies to be knocked out. He, his canine partner, and their very sensitive ears were paired against the remaining Sound nin, and he had them laid out on the floor, knocked out by the pain his attacks caused them very quickly.

Then the two Hyuuga were selected to fight against each other.

Neji shared a friendly hand-grip with Lee before he left his team to head down to the floor where he would fight his younger cousin. Naruto held out his hand as Neji approached him, and Neji clapped his own with it, the two friends exchanging a firm grip, as Neji had done with Lee, before the Hyuuga boy moved on.

"This... is a little unexpected," Neji admitted to Hinata as they walked out to the middle of the floor.

"But it's good too," Hinata offered with a small smile. "We haven't been able to spar except under the supervision or your father or mine, and then we are drilled very strictly in the family style."

Neji smirked in agreement. "I'll finally get to see what your sensei has been teaching you?" he asked eagerly.  
Hinata's small smile became a smirk of her own. "Some," she promised. "Don't hold back on me, Neji-nii-san."

"Hajime!" Gekkou instructed.

In perfect synchrony with each other, the two cousins raced through their seals and activated their family dojutsu; the byakugan. What followed was a beautifully dangerous battle, made all the more unnerving to the spectators for the joyful grins that never left the faces of the combatants. Even when one of them coughed up blood, both of them were still smiling.

Ultimately, Neji won, but he carried his younger cousin back up the stairs to the viewing platform and her sensei when their fight was over, and stood by her protectively as Kagome healed the girl's injuries. Well, he stood until his shaking legs wouldn't hold him up any more, and he had to sit down before he fell down.

~oOo~

One genin from each of Konoha's rookie teams had succeeded in winning their preliminary battle and advancing to the third stage of the exam. Only one from each of them, a total of four, if Maito's team was included among the rookies, as this was their first exam also. Apart from them, all three of the genin from Suna were through, and only the one Sound nin. Eight even. Four matches would be held before visiting dignitaries and potential clients.

Shino and Shikamaru would be opposing Kankurou and Temari respectively, while Naruto and Neji had drawn each other for their opponents. The disturbing – and possibly disturbed – Gaara of Suna would be fighting against the only remaining genin from Sound.

And they had a month to prepare. A month to train and improve themselves. A month to hone techniques that they hadn't shown off already. A month to figure out a way to surprise and defeat their assigned opponents. A month before the third stage of the exam would be held before stands of spectators.

"Oi Neji," Naruto called to the boy standing next to him as they took in the tournament match-ups and layout that Morino was holding up for them on a clipboard. "You'd better train hard, or I might accidentally give you a haircut."

Neji snorted in amusement. "You're one to talk," he quipped back. "Your hair is longer than mine."

"Question," Shikamaru called, hand raised like he was back in class at the Academy. "There's only one winner of the tournament, right? Does that mean only one person will be promoted?"

"A select group will be judging the combatants in every fight, looking to see who will fulfil the criteria of chuunin. Competing in more fights simply gives you more opportunities to display your skills," the Hokage answered.

"So everybody could be promoted," Temari noted.

"Or none of you might be," the Hokage stated, but inclined his head slightly, agreeing with her point.

Then they were dismissed.

"Yosh," Naruto said as he turned. "Time to go to the hospital then."

"Eh?" Sakura yelped. "You're hurt, Naruto-sempai?"

"No," Naruto answered simply. "But some of my friends were. I'm going to check on them. Probably stop by a flower shop on my way. Hospital rooms are very depressing places to be, with no flowers or visitors."

"You can't give Tenten flowers," Neji said flatly. "You'll give her ideas. You know she likes you."

"I'll stop by a place that sells bath stuff instead then," Naruto deferred with a shrug, then smirked deviously at his friend. "Will _you_ be getting her flowers?" he questioned, a hint of a leer on his face.

Neji's face pinked a little, but he nodded all the same.

"Oh ho! Do Hyuuga-sama and your father approve? Or have you managed to keep a secret from them?" Naruto pressed happily.

Kenshin sighed, a smile on his face as he turned to his wife. "He gets that from you dear," he told her.

Kagome giggled, but didn't deny her husband's accusation.

"Naruto," she called after him.

"Oro?" he asked, turning to look over his shoulder at his mother.

"Bathe, before you go to the hospital," she advised with a smile.

"Oh, yeah..."

~oOo~

"Mou, you didn't bring me flowers, Naruto-kun?" Tenten asked with a pout when Naruto stepped into her room at the hospital.

Naruto smiled back. "I'm glad you're awake," he said, "and no, I didn't bring you flowers, because Neji said _he_ would be bringing you flowers. I brought you some liniments, ointments, oils, and a few different bath-salts."

Tenten smiled fondly at the elaborately wrapped gift as the blonde set it on one of the bedside tables in the room. "Thank you, Naruto-kun," she said gratefully.

Naruto smirked. "I also brought you chocolates," he informed her, and produced from his sleeve a little white box with a brown ribbon.

"Ara!" Tenten exclaimed in delight, her brown eyes shining in eagerness as she accepted the box and immediately dived in, popping one of the little chocolates straight in her mouth. "Mm, thank you Naruto-kun," she moaned happily once she'd eaten in.

Naruto chuckled. "You're welcome," he said. "Now you rest, heal, and don't give the doctors and nurses a hard time, okay? I've got to visit a few other people, and then I'm going to train."

"Ne, Naruto-kun, before you go?" Tenten called after him as he turned to go.

"Oro?"

"What happened after my fight? What will the third stage be?" Tenten asked.

"A tournament," Naruto answered. "I'm paired against Neji in the last fight of the first round," he added with a grin, then gave a wave. "Ja ne, Tenten-chan."

"Ja ne," she answered softly as the door closed.

Neji was waiting outside the room, holding several bunches of flowers. There was his own selection for Tenten – a peach blossoms and fennel arrangement – but he also held the flowers Naruto had picked out for Lee and Hinata. Naruto thanked his friends for holding his flowers, and continued down the hall with his two bunches, while Neji entered Tenten's room with his own arrangement.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata greeted softly. "Hello."

Naruto smiled back at the girl. "Hello Hinata-san," Naruto answered, and moved to set the pear blossoms (with a few pears in there too) in the little vase that the hospital provided in the expectation that _someone_ would visit the room with flowers.

Hinata laughed to see the arrangement.

"They're pretty, and a good way to slip in a tasty snack for you," Naruto informed her, pretending to take offence to her laughter, only to smile, breaking the act. "Pear blossoms also mean everlasting friendship," he added. "I hope we can have that?" he asked.

Hinata smiled back at him, calming her laughter. "I would like that," she agreed. "Thank you, Naruto-kun."

"I'm fighting Neji in the third exam," Naruto admitted.

Hinata blinked in surprise, then smiled. "You'll have a hard fight," she informed him happily. "My Neji-nii-san is very strong," she added, proud of his cousin and his strength.

Naruto chuckled. "I know," he agreed. "But so am I, so you'd better get well soon, and help him train so he's ready to face me in a month. Neji's still walking, but you did a real number on him, Hinata-san."

Hinata smiled brightly. "I did, didn't I?"

They shared a laugh for a moment, and then Naruto excused himself to let Hinata enjoy the flowers (and fruit) he'd brought her, as well as get some more rest. He had one more visit to make.

A visit that he couldn't help but approach solemnly.

Lee had been pitted against Gaara in the preliminary round, and it had been a truly impressive, devastating fight. A fight that would have seen more custom to both Suna and Konoha if it had only been performed in front of the people who would be coming to witness the third and final stage of the chuunin exam. The fight was so incredible that there were concerns over Lee's ability to continue in his chosen career. His injuries from the fight were very serious. It was unlikely that he would be discharged in time for the third stage, though he might be permitted to attend if in the company of one of the hospital's medical staff.

Might.

Lee was sleeping, or perhaps sedated still, when Naruto entered his room.

The blonde sighed at the sight. It wasn't right, for Lee to be still like that. Lee was a person of action, of movement. Stillness didn't suit the boy. For that matter, neither did the hospital scrubs that he'd been changed into.

Naruto sighed again, and moved to set the arrangement he had brought – almond for hope, watchfulness, and promise, and sage for esteem – in the vase by Lee's bed. The boy probably wouldn't wake that day, but similarly, Naruto didn't have anything else urgent to do. Rin and Yahiko were at the day care, Tomoe and Shippo were at the Academy, his parents were meeting with their teams to sort out how they would be training in the coming month, since they both had only one genin advancing in the exams, and Hatake had given him and Haruno the day off.

Hatake was going to help Uchiha with his retirement paperwork, and then help him find suitable tutors who would be able to teach the boy how best to fight – and kill – his older brother. That would take at least the next twenty-four hours.

Naruto decided that, for at least a little while, he'd sit and hold vigil over his 'very unique' friend. A hospital room wasn't his favourite place to be, but he could watch over Lee here – not that the boy should need watching over really – and maybe get in some meditation at the same time.

Naruto hadn't been there long when he heard Lee stirring.

"Ah, Lee," Naruto greeted with a smile when those eyes opened.

"Naruto-kun? What are you doing here?" Lee asked, confused.

Naruto chuckled, and gestured to the vase. "I brought you flowers," he said. "You're my friend Lee, and hospital rooms are depressing without flowers."

"Ah, thank you, Naruto-kun, but I won't be here long. I've got to get back to training," Lee said, even as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Like hell," Naruto said with a snort, and forced Lee back down. "If you want to be able to return to the ranks ever again, you will do exactly what the doctors here tell you. No training until you've been discharged Lee," Naruto ordered his friend with a smirk. "And I'm going to come back every day and check, to make sure you've been behaving. I want to fight along side you some day, which means you'd better not put your recovery back by pushing yourself too hard in the mean time."

Lee sighed, but lay back down and smiled at his friend. "Alright, Naruto-kun. I won't train until I am discharged by the doctors," he agreed.

Naruto nodded, satisfied. "Good."

~oOo~

So, Uchiha was retired from the Shinobi Forces of Konohagakure... and Haruno hadn't followed him in that decision. Even after what they had all seen in the Forest of Death. Make no mistake, just because Team Seven had raced over the treetops and successfully avoided any further confrontations did _not_ mean that they hadn't been _witness_ to a good many. Haruno had forced herself to smile for about half that run. Smiling suppressed the gag reflex, and Uchiha had already thrown up earlier. They didn't have time for her to stop and do the same.

She didn't want to take the time to stop and do the same. Stopping to throw up would make them a target.

As such, Haruno was incrementally earning Naruto's respect. Of course, for every advance towards being a serious kunoichi that she made, she also held herself steadfastly back by not allowing herself to outgrow certain childish behaviours. But with Uchiha retired, and Naruto competent already, Hatake turned his attention to his female student.

It was a week into the preparatory month before the final stage of the exam before Naruto saw Haruno again. She had decided to visit her old classmates who were in the hospital, and the two team-mates had arrived in the lobby at the same time. Haruno from the front door, Naruto from the corridor that led to the rooms. He'd finished his visit for the day.

If he had to say – though he didn't, and so wouldn't – then he would say he was impressed by what a mere week of their sensei's undivided attention had done for the girl. Her pink hair was still long, but it was more sensibly tied back now, rather than being allowed to just hang freely. Her red dress was gone, replaced by a deep, grey-purple shirt that would blend into shadows with much greater ease. The tight green pants that she'd worn under her dress were kept, but they were a sensible sort of clothing for a shinobi.

"Hello, Haruno-san," Naruto greeted.

"Oh! Naruto-sempai," Haruno answered, surprised. "Hello. You're not training?" she asked curiously.

"I take a break every day at lunch time to eat and check on Lee," Naruto explained. "How is your own training going?"

Haruno pulled a face. "It's painful and frustrating, and Kakashi-sensei is insane, but Haku-san makes sure he's on time now, and I'm getting stronger," she admitted. "I think... I think I'll actually be _ready_ for the chuunin exams next time."

Naruto smiled. Next time. The girl was actually going to stick it out. That was good. Konoha needed shinobi who would commit to their careers, and it looked like Haruno had finally decided to do just that.

"Ah, Naruto-kun," another voice called.

Both Haruno and Naruto looked to see who had called out of the blonde, and their eyes widened slightly to see that the Hokage out from behind his desk at the Hokage Tower. That didn't happen often.

"Hokage-sama," Naruto answered with a slight bow.

"I'll see you around maybe, Naruto-sempai," Haruno said in a whisper.

Naruto nodded in silent acknowledgement, and watched Haruno out of the corner of his eye as she bowed lower to the Hokage and scurried off to make her visits. He then returned his bright blue gaze to his Hokage.

"I am glad that the AnBu who told me your routine was correct," the Hokage said with a smile, "and that I was able to catch you before you disappeared into one of the training areas for the rest of the afternoon. I have a mission for you."

Naruto blinked. "A mission, Hokage-sama? At this time?" he asked, confused.

The Hokage chuckled. "Nothing that will cause you to neglect your training, I assure you," he promised with a smile. "I want you to find Jiraiya of the Sannin, he's one of my old students, and he's _supposed_ to have reported to me two days ago. The guards at the gate told me that he has returned to Konoha, but he hasn't been seen since then except for when he stops by a restaurant that does take-away."

Naruto considered that. Tracking down one of the Sannin? Even just within the village, that could be quite difficult.

"My own intelligence -" he did have the _tōgemane no jutsu_ at his disposal after all, quite apart from a lot of experience with the man, "- suggests that he will most likely be found where young women are having fun in minimal clothing. Naruto-kun, the man is also your godfather," the Hokage added softly, then smiled. "I'd like you to beat him up, hog-tie him, and deliver him to my office please, Naruto-kun. That is the mission I have for you."

Naruto blinked in shock. "Me? Beat up one of the Sannin?" he asked. "Oro?"

The Hokage chuckled. "I believe you are capable, Naruto-kun," he insisted kindly. "And you just have to have him in my office the day before the final exam, at the latest. You have plenty of time to learn how to leave Jiraya in a bloody pulp. That will be good training for you, hm?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Naruto answered, a little numbly. "Thank you."


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto frowned when he found the large man, crouched behind some bushes and peeking through the leaves to spy on some scantily clad young women. He had plenty of options to distract the man from the activities of the young women beyond. He could thump him on the head with the blunt edge of his sword. He could skewer the man with an arrow through a non-vital body-part. He could use one of the many chakra-based techniques that his biological parents had left behind for him. He could, heaven forbid, do something non-violent.

If his mother and sisters found out he'd gone for the non-violent path in this instance, he'd be the one to get a bruising.

_Or_, a familiar voice in his head spoke up, _you could do something truly devious_...

Naruto stifled his chuckles, so as not to give himself away to his target. His partner didn't offer ideas that often outside of when they were training together – something that was done in total secrecy. It was entire likely that if the adults in the village knew about this aspect of Naruto's training, they'd fall over where they stood, some passed out in shock, some from heart-failure. Still, Naruto enjoyed the company of his partner, or at least he had since he was eight and had finally reached an accord with his tenant-slash-prisoner.

Naruto moved away from the large man, far enough away that no one would notice that he created a _kage_ _bunshin_ to keep an eye on the peeper. The _kage_ _bunshin_ left to his surveillance task, while Naruto himself continued down to where the girls were enjoying the fine, warm day and the cool water.

Without looking once at them, or indicating in any way that he'd noticed them, Naruto began to carefully strip out of his hakama and kimono, hanging each piece up on a convenient tree branch, and when he was wearing only his fundoshi, he set his sword against the same tree and moved out onto the water.

The eyes of each one of the girls followed him very attentively. Indeed, none of their gazes had wavered from him for an instant since he had stepped out of the bushes and into the company of the girls who were splashing about in the river with his kimono sitting loosely, exposing his chest for the world – and for the girls – to see.

Naruto was young, but he was a shinobi, and he'd grown well. Even though he was a year younger than the rest of the kids in his class at the Academy, he'd still been one of the tallest. A good diet and gruelling exercise meant that he was also very toned, and it wasn't just the beauty of Naruto's younger siblings that had caused Kenshin to commission the sword for threatening potential suitors and discouraging those who would sully the virtue of his children.

He was handsome, and he knew it. His Academy class had the girls rather equally divided in which believed he was the most handsome, and which believed Neji to be. Neji, poor guy, had fallen for one of the girls who had been a member of Naruto's fanclub. Still, he seemed to be making some headway with Tenten despite that. Being on the same team for a bit over a year, and that Tenten hadn't ever been a die-hard fangirl, had probably had something to do with that.

As for right now, Naruto heard some very appreciative sounds being sighed out behind him as he walked out onto the water and started to move through his kenpo katas. For five minutes he practised, and they watched him in fascinated silence as the fine mist of the waterfall clung to his body like a sheen of sweat, his muscles all rippling as he moved and on display for the young women as he flowed through the katas with hardly a stitch on his person.

His focus didn't waver though, and eventually, the girls moved quietly to the pebble-covered riverbank, where they packed up their basket, pulled clothes on over their swim suits, and then left without a word but many backwards glances.

Five seconds after the girls left, a very different person burst into the area, stripped down to his fundoshi and with a great big grin across his face, arms spread wide.

"Eh? Where'd the girls go?" the man asked, surprised by their absence.

"They left," Naruto answered, and looked over at the man. "Who are you?"

"I am Jiraiya! The Great Toad Sage!" the man presented grandly.

"Ah," Naruto said shortly. "Well then, hello Godfather. Hokage-sama has given me a mission to beat you up and deliver you to his office hog-tied."

"Eh?!"  
"And right now, my _kage_ _bunshin_ should be stealing the clothes you just stripped off."

"_Eh_?!"

Naruto grinned and cracked his knuckles eagerly.

~oOo~

"You probably don't notice it, but you have two different types of chakra," Jiraiya said, wincing as he felt out all of the injuries he'd received from the blonde teenager. He hadn't come out on top of their fight, though he hadn't _exactly_ lost either. Naruto had his own share of fresh bruises. "Have you ever felt any special chakra in you before?"

Naruto snorted, amused, as he crossed his legs beneath him and turned to face the old man.

"Well, let's see," he said, and rested his elbows on his knees. One arm was brought up for him to rest his chin on, while the other was lax, palm-up, in his lap. "There's my regular chakra," he said, and casually formed a _rasengan_ in the hand that was resting in his lap.

Jiraiya's jaw dropped.

"My chakra that is aligned to the wind element," Naruto continued, and the air around the _rasengan_ started to swirl dangerously as he added his affinity to the technique.

Jiraiya's eyes bugged.

"And then there's my partner's chakra," Naruto finished, and the wind dissipated, replaced by a dangerous, deep red glow that overtook the technique and made it look so much more dangerous than it had before.

None of those additions had been easy to figure out. Not at all. But he'd had a few years to do it, as well as help from his father's notes, his parent's own experimentations with the technique, and from his tenant as well. Naruto closed his hand into a fist, reclaiming the chakra and cancelling the technique.

He looked up at Jiraiya, and smirked at the man's completely gobsmacked expression. His face seemed to have completely frozen. It looked like he wasn't even breathing, he was in that much shock.

"I'm not too good with medical chakra though," Naruto admitted wryly. "Kurama fixes up my wounds, so I don't need it for myself, but I have to rely on normal first-aid for if I want to help other people."

"Uh... Kurama?" Jiraiya asked, his normally deep voice barely a squeak.

"The Yoko, Kurama, also known as the Kyuubi no Kitsune," Naruto elaborated. "My partner," he added, and lightly pressed his hand to his stomach where the Yongaime Hokage had painted the seal that contained the greatest of the biju. As they were both still only in their fundoshi, and he'd been channelling chakra, it was quite visible.

"P-pa-partner?!"

Naruto chuckled and straightened. He formed a series of seals with his hands – reversed inu, saru, and the same modified ram seal that was used for the _kage bunshin_ – then he smirked.

"_Kurama bunshin_," he intoned.

The red chakra swirled around Naruto, up, and then down again to the ground at his side. It quickly splashed up off the ground again, like a drop of water in a puddle, and when it settled back down, that red chakra was absorbed into the body that was now seated beside Naruto. A body with red hair as long as Naruto's, bright green eyes, and delicate, though definitely pointed features. It should also be noted that, where Naruto preferred hakama and kimono (and was, as previously stated, only currently wearing his fundoshi), the figure at his side wore more close-fitting trousers and shirt in pale grey under a sleeveless qipao tunic of shadowy purple and deep forest green.

This was no normal _bunshin_. Most solid _bunshin_ could perform a _henge_, and disguise themselves, but they had to form first. This _bunshin_ had formed in a body that was different to its maker. In addition to the differences already noted, where Naruto was a boy only just entering his teen years, this _bunshin_, no, this _person_ was closer to eighteen or nineteen. Physically. There was the wisdom of centuries dancing in the depths of those clear, jewel-like green eyes.

"Godfather, meet my partner," Naruto presented.

The red-haired, green-eyed youth smirked a little at the old man. The action showed off his white teeth – the canines of which were just slightly larger than was usual.

"Uh, er, um, tha-that is... uh..."

Naruto and Kurama both chuckled.

"You were expecting pointed ears, tails, claws, massive fangs and slitted, golden eyes I suppose?" Kurama suggested, and shook his head at the stunned old man in amusement. "I save the menacing, truly demonic look for when I have to do battle."

"It would be too conspicuous if Kurama walked around like that all the time," Naruto pointed out reasonably. "And we don't really need people panicking if they accidentally stumble on us training together. Hokage-sama knows," he added quickly, to reassure the man. He left out that his parents and younger siblings had all met Kurama as well though.

As had Hatake and Haru, though they hadn't realised who they were being introduced to at the time, and only Hatake had been illuminated as to that point, though quietly and separately by Kenshin and Kagome, while Naruto and Kurama had entertained Haku and the younger Himuras.

The whole thing was a better kept secret than the fact that Naruto was a _jinchuriki,_ even though plenty of people had seen Naruto and Kurama walking down Konohas streets together on more than one occasion.

Jiraiya's eyes rolled up into his head and he keeled over.

Naruto and Kurama shared a look and bit down on the inclination to laugh at the man. The Hokage had taken this little presentation a _lot_ better than that. He'd just dropped his lit pipe into his robed lap and had to pat out the small flame that had caught there.

Naruto moved to check that Jiraiya hadn't actually died – the man _was_ old, after all, and there was no telling what condition his heart was in – then nodded to his partner and went to get dressed.

Kurama grinned.

~oOo~

"You'll like this," Kurama promised Naruto with a smile.

They'd already rifled through all of Jiraiya's possessions (the clone had brought the man's stolen clothes over once he'd passed out), picked apart his storage seals and raided the contents of them, burned all of his 'research', and written 'get writing lessons' in large red letters all over his current manuscript. Kurama had swiped Hatake's book once and given it a cursory glance. He'd handed it back with distaste and a comment on how badly written the thing was.

Hatake had replied that he didn't read it for its literary worth. He read it because it was funny – how bad and inaccurate it was, that is.

Now, Kurama hauled the large (and still comatose) man upright, and made a small cut over a scar on the man's thumb. The kind of scar that existed because he never gave it quite long enough to heal properly before he cut it open again. Kurama set his hand over Jiraiya's, pressed it into the ground, and pressed his chakra through.

A puff of smoke, and the ground shot away as they rocketed up on the back of a giant toad.

"Jiraiya!" it bellowed. "How dare you summon me? After what happened last time -!"

"Oro?" Naruto asked.

"Ah, sumimasen, Gama-sama," Kurama apologised with a smile as he left Jiraiya and walked over to stand in front of one of the massive toad's eyes. "I manipulated Jiraiya and summoned you."

"You?! Who are you?" the giant toad demanded.

Kurama smirked. "I'm the one who gave you this," he said, and touched the bottom end of the scar that ran over one of the massive toad's eyes.

"What?!" the massive toad roared.

"For which I apologise," Kurama added. "An Uchiha had me hypnotised by a genjutsu at the time, or I would never have attacked Konoha. My name is Kurama."

"Hmph. I am Gamabunta," the toad replied, clearly only grudgingly accepting the apology. "If you are the one who gave me this scar though, then you should be contained."

"He is," Naruto joined in, and stepped up beside Kurama. "In me. We came to an agreement though," he explained. "Once we were able to break that damn genjutsu. Wretched illusion was older than my mother! It is an honour to meet you, Gamabunta-sama," he added, and bowed. "I am Himura Naruto."

"Himura?" Gamabunta repeated, curious. "I have never heard that name before."

Naruto and Kurama both smiled a little sadly.

"His father _was_ Namikaze Minato, and his mother _was_ Uzumaki Kushina," Kurama started to explain softly.

"But now my father _is_ Himura Kenshin, and my mother _is_ Himura Kagome," Naruto said. "I was fortunate enough to be adopted."

"So. The son of my most respectful summoner. You want to sign the summoning contract for the toads, Boy?" asked Gamabunta.

"He does not," Kurama answered firmly, and maybe a little sharply, showing his teeth a little.

"_Kurama_ is my partner," Naruto reaffirmed.

As well as the _Kurama bunshin_, which they used for Kurama to get out and about, to train together or just be a bit casual, Naruto could also 'summon' the demon fox. Depending on the technique he used to draw Kurama's chakra out, he would take different forms. Every few months, one or other of them would come up with a new idea for how to do that, but mostly it was academic. There hadn't been any need yet for Kurama to aid Naruto in a battle situation. Which was really just as well, because it might be hard to explain Kurama's presence to Naruto's fellow ninja, especially in the middle of a battle, and as Kurama didn't have a hitae-ate.

"I was hoping that, in a few years, Naruto might be able to visit Mount Myoboku," Kurama requested, forcing himself calm once more. "I can, and have, taught Naruto about the theory of natural energy, but I have no wish for my keeper to turn to stone, and I don't have that clever stick you toads use on your senjutsu students."

"You just want the use of the staff," Gamabunta grumbled.

Kurama nodded. This was true. "If I had my own, I would not trouble you with the request that Naruto be permitted to visit your home in a few years."

"Why in a few years? Why not now?" Gamabunta questioned.

"This is training that cannot be interrupted, and Naruto has prior commitments right now," Kurama explained lightly.

Gamabunta grunted. "I'll speak with the Sage," he allowed. "You just _might_ get a staff of your own, damn youko," he grumbled, and then disappeared in a massive explosion of smoke.

Kurama, Naruto, and the still-unconscious, still-almost-naked Jiraiya, were dropped to the ground. Jiraiya was the only one to land on his head, rather than his feet, but that was to be expected really.

~oOo~

It was the day before the third stage of the exams, and Naruto had come, as per his routine, to visit Lee in the hospital. As usual, he arrived to find the whole staff had gone to lunch. They'd return in time to bid him good day as he left, maybe answer a few questions about how Lee's recovery was coming along.

"Ah, he's sleeping," Naruto noted softly as he let himself into Lee's room. "That's good," he muttered in approval, and moved to the chair that was by the bed.

Lee had been sleeping a few other times when Naruto had visited, but Naruto always stayed for a while anyway. He'd meditate, think about things, make sure that the flowers he'd brought for his friend weren't wilted, sometimes he'd read Lee's medical chart from the end of his bed too.

Naruto had hardly been there for five minutes when another person opened the door of Lee's room and entered.

"Gaara-san," Naruto greeted.

"Himura," Gaara answered.

"I suppose that you are back for the third stage of the chuunin exam tomorrow?" Naruto asked. "You returned to Suna for the preparatory month, didn't you?"

"Yes," Gaara agreed, then turned his pale green eyes on the sleeping form of Lee. His carriage became tense, and the red-head hunched over, apparently in pain as he clutched at his head.

Naruto watched the slightly older boy very carefully. Gaara had almost killed Lee during their preliminary fight a month previous. Would have, if Maito hadn't intervened.

Gaara had demanded, then, to know why Maito had saved Lee. Maito answered that Lee was "a subordinate that he loved". Gaara hadn't taken it too well then, and it looked like he still wasn't adjusted to the idea now, as the stopper fell out of the gourd he carried and sand started to flow from Gaara across to Lee's bed.

"What are you trying to do to my friend?" Naruto asked, his voice low.

"I'm going to kill him," Gaara replied plainly.

"Why?"

"Because I want him dead."

"Mm, no," Naruto decided firmly. "That's not a good enough reason. Please recall your sand, Gaara-san."

"If you bother me, I'll kill you too," Gaara informed Naruto, his tone bored.

Naruto tsked and shook his head briefly. "You didn't grow up in a happy, loving home, did you, Gaara-san?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "I think I'll credit that to your parents, and maybe your older brother. Your sister was very pleasant when we all went out and had beef stew together."

"I'll say this once more. If you bother me, I'll kill you," Gaara stated lowly, his green eyes void of any real emotion.

Naruto schooled his face into the same emotionless mask that Gaara was wearing. "You will fail," he informed the older boy. "I didn't even begin to show my strength in the preliminary matches. You have no idea what I can do. Me..." Naruto paused as he double-checked the chakra he was sensing from the other boy, the chakra he'd sensed back during the preliminary round and even before then when he'd invited the Kazekage's three children to share some beef stew. "... and the monster inside me."

"A monster?" Gaara asked. "Then I am the same."

Naruto nodded to himself, suspicions confirmed.

"As you said, I did not grow up in a nice environment," Gaara began. "I was a monster at birth, stealing the life of the woman who bore me, when my father used a technique to bind an incarnate of sand to me. It is called Shukaku, and it was sealed in a tea-kettle. It is a living soul of an elder priest from Sunagakure."

"Your father did that?" Naruto asked, careful not to show any of the reaction Kurama was having within him to the name of Shukaku. "Transferred a safely sealed thing into you, to make you a weapon? An interesting thing for a father to do for his son. Or perhaps, _to_ his son."

"My _family_ are just lumps of meat linked by hatred and murderous intent," Gaara spat out, though he didn't move, not even a hint of a twitch to his face. "I was taught many secret techniques as a child. I was kept sheltered, isolated, and given everything I asked for. Until the incident."

Naruto nodded, an encouragement for the other boy to keep talking.

For now, Gaara's sand wasn't creeping any further up Lee's bed, not moving, and certainly not attacking. For now, things were safe. Sort of.

"Starting from when I was six, my father has been sending assassins after me," Gaara denounced.

Naruto blinked. He had not expected that.

"I was too strong, an embodiment of fear to all around me. My mind was declared unstable, my emotions too unpredictable. I was still the village's trump card, but I was also a threat. At six, classified as dangerous, to be handled with care. A failed experiment that the Kazekage wants to be rid of, but can't be, because I'm _too_ dangerous. After the first assassination attempt, I asked myself why I even lived, but I could not find an answer."

To this, Naruto nodded thoughtfully. He knew that many shinobi asked themselves that same question, and that all of those who did struggled with finding their answers. Haruno and Uchiha had asked back in Wave. Hatake had told them that asking such a question was something that most shinobi knew better than to do.

This was why.

"But without an answer for that question, it would be the same as me being dead," Gaara continued, a dark expression clouding his face. "This is what I concluded: I exist to kill everyone other than me. I fight only for myself, and love only myself. As long as I think that other people exist to make me feel that, the world is wonderful. As long as there are people to kill in this world, to make me experience the joy of living, my existence will remain."

Naruto blinked. "You didn't get enough hugs when you were little," he informed the red-head plainly. Then he smirked. "I'm sure I can find someone who would be willing to correct that for you," he offered.

Gaara scowled.

Naruto chuckled. "You don't frighten me, Gaara-san. I will see you tomorrow on the battlefield." he said. "But you will not kill my friend."

Gaara winced, as though pained by that simple word, friend, and turned from the room. "I _will_ kill you," Gaara promised as he hesitated at the door, a dark look sent over his shoulder at the blonde before he left.

~oOo~

"This isn't about us," Naruto noted softly to Neji as they stood, side by side in the arena, looking up at the rows and rows of civilians and shinobi who had come to watch the final stage of the chuunin exams. "This is about our village. This is about putting on a display, but without giving anything away."

"Give me a chance to prove my skill before you knock me out," Neji requested with a smirk, one that acknowledged that, however skilled he was, he had yet to win a spar against his blonde friend when there were no rules about weapons.

The jibe about him accidentally getting a haircut was not entirely in jest. When they'd been training with kunai back in the Academy, Naruto _had_ given Neji a haircut. A number of the young Hyuuga boy's fangirls had been devastated – and furious. The only reason Naruto hadn't suffered their wrath was because of his own fangirls getting in the way. Then there'd been the rush to claim the lock of hair Naruto had cut off.

"One minute against my kenpo," Naruto offered. "No family secrets. Too many potential spies."

"Agreed," Neji answered.

Then the Hokage declared the beginning of the final stage of the chuunin exam, and the genin who were waiting their turns in the arena were sent out. Only Kankurou and Shino remained.

It was an impressive fight, but Naruto thought it showed off too many of their techniques. Still, the tough-talking son of the Kazekage was out, his big bad puppet defeated by Shino's millions of tiny chakra-eating insects and a very clever strategy.

Shikamaru's fight with Temari was long, drawn-out, and while he technically won the fight the second he finally caught the Suna kunoichi in his trap, he forfeited rather than continue on.

By contrast, the confrontation between Gaara and Dosu was swift and bloody. The nin from the Sound village was nothing but a mass of ground meat when Gaara released him from his sand coffin.

"I am not fighting that," Neji said firmly as he and Naruto watched Gaara walk off the field. "He's all yours. I'm good, but I can't handle the crazy ones yet. Well, except for Lee."

Naruto chuckled. "Lee's not crazy," he mock-scolded his friend, knowing that Neji hadn't actually meant his words regarding their friend. "He's just 'unique'."

Neji smirked back at his friend, punched him lightly in the arm, and turned to head down to the arena.

"Oi! What's this getting in a hit before the fight even starts?" Naruto complained as he held his arm in pretending pain and followed Neji down.

"I need a handicap," Neji retorted lightly.

"Hah!"


	11. Chapter 11

Temari forfeited to Shino before their fight began, and though it was hard to tell with the boy's high collar, Naruto suspected that Shino scowled at her for it. According to what he heard from his mother, Shino had a carefully concealed competitive streak that didn't get out often. This would have been a chance for that, and he had been denied. Naruto suspected that it was because Temari expected to win against Shino, and for himself to lose to Gaara. Whether she didn't want to fight Gaara out of familial loyalty or out of fear, Naruto didn't care.

He was planning to make it a moot point, if that was her reasoning.

Naruto was called to fight Gaara before he'd even completely vacated the field after his fight with Neji. No, he hadn't given his friend a haircut. It had been a close thing though.

"I've been looking forward to this," Gaara informed Naruto softly as they faced each other. "I will kill you, and you will validate my existence. Let me _feel_..."

"Begin," the proctor instructed, and was quick to jump back, out of the way of the battle that he was sure was about to erupt between the two genin.

"Come," Gaara urged, a bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes as sand floated out of the gourd he carried and hovered around him like a strange, tangible aura.

"A wise man does not attack a stronger opponent head on, where he can be seen, but rather from an angle," Naruto replied softly, and in a flash of yellow, he disappeared.

Naruto had seeded one of his birth-father's special kunai in the part of the field that had some cover in the form of a few trees. That had been done about the time he went from passive-defensive to offensive against Neji.

From within the cover, Naruto unsealed his bow from the seal on his palm, two arrows from one of the seals in his cuff, took aim, and let the first arrow fly.

The lovely thing about arrows, to Naruto's mind, was that they went so much faster than anything that a person could throw. Kagome had explained it to him once, called it 'physics', and then gotten that distant look on her face that meant she'd half-remembered something from _before_. Regardless of why, the fact remained that a thrown weapon could be tracked, spotted, arrows could – if the bow was of the right tension – arrive at their destination in the time it took a person to blink.

Another handy thing about arrows was that most shinobi didn't carry bows around, and so they couldn't steal his weapons and use them to return fire. Catching the kunai or shuriken of your opponent, and throwing it back at them, was something that practically every genin learned within the first six months. In some villages, it was taught in their Academies.

An arrow without a bow, however, could only be used to stab someone close by. Someone who was skilled with senbon might manage to throw an arrow at a speed that would cause damage, but the feathers and the arrow-head, to say nothing of the great disparity in length between the arrow and the senbon, would disrupt their standard technique.

Haku had certainly noticed that difference when, taking a break from working in the Himura Apothecary, he had joined Tomoe, Shippo, Rin and Yahiko in their archery lessons. Yahiko had only just joined those lessons in the last month. He was a very cute little archer, but he much preferred to wave around his little shinai.

Naruto's arrow moved fast enough that Gaara's sand, that automatic defence of his, reacted almost too late.

The very tip was touching the broad leather strip that Gaara wore across his chest, while the fletching was held, caught, by the sand. It the arrow hadn't been stopped, it could very easily have punctured the leather strap and the light clothing. If Gaara wore armour that was more solid than the mesh stuff favoured by Shikamaru, Anko, and so many other shinobi, then that would have stopped the arrow, but the mesh would have been insufficient.

Gaara stared at the projectile. The thing that had come closer to hitting him than any other weapon had in his half-lifetime of assassination attempts.

His sand surged. A portion of it followed the line of the arrow backwards, back to Naruto. The rest began to build up around the boy, layer upon layer of sand in a great protective sphere around Gaara.

Naruto dodged around the sand that was seeking him, and fired his second arrow at the sphere, aiming for the small gap that was still there, and through which Naruto could just see one pale, jade eye of his opponent.

The sand that had been seeking him was diverted. It caught the shaft of the arrow and snapped it in two. Then it retreated back to the increasingly thick sphere around Gaara, and that last little whole was plugged.

Naruto left the cover of the trees and stood before the proctor and the giant ball of sand.

"He has trapped himself," Naruto observed, and began to gather chakra in his hand. "A trap should always be carefully tested, and removed so that a shinobi can continue with his mission unhindered."

The _rasengan_ was formed. Naruto thrust it out into the ball of sand, releasing it from his hold as the sand spiked out at him, rather than staying near and simply trying to dodge the spikes. The _rasengan_ kept going though, drilling through the sand until it was inside Gaara's defence – and despite the fact that a great deal of its energy had been used up in penetrating the defence, there was still enough power left in the technique to injure the red-head within.

Gaara screamed in pain.

Naruto backed off, blue eyes taking in every detail that they could, observing his opponent. The whispers he had overheard from the Kazekage's two older children, as well as his own observations during Gaara's preliminary match against Lee, indicated that Gaara was not someone who was accustomed to physical pain.

The sand, generally speaking, stopped anything – and indeed, possibly _everything_ – before it touched him.

"Blood!" Gaara screamed from within his shell. "My blood!"

Through the hole left by Naruto's technique drilling through the sand, Naruto saw something moving in the shadows, and then there was an eye. A dark, yellow, strangely patterned eye that locked onto him and released such killing intent that Naruto grit his teeth against the urge to pull his sword and charge like a dying man.

The globe of hardened sand cracked, then dissolved down, the grainy particles falling like oil through a sieve as they flowed. Slowly, Gaara was revealed. He held his slightly bloodied shoulder – the _rasengan_ had gone through the leather strap he wore as well, so the damage was not as bad as it would have been if the rock-hard sand and the strap had not been there – and panted as he tried to regain control of himself through the pain.

While Gaara was making that effort, an explosion went off where the Hokage and the Kazekage were sitting.

Naruto refused to take his eyes off Gaara though. The other teen was mentally unstable before he had been injured, and he'd not had a good reaction to _being_ injured. Quickly, Naruto formed a _kage bunshin_ that ran off, up the wall of the stadium towards the stands, to see just what was going on.

The answer?

Nothing good.

"I'll kill you."

Then again, things weren't all roses down where Naruto was either.

~oOo~

Due to Gaara being injured and having used too much chakra in too short a time, his elder siblings leapt down to the battlefield. Kankurou had apparently regained some of the chakra he'd been drained of in his battle against Shino. The jounin who had accompanied them as their sensei and supervisor also leapt into the arena, and stood between the team of Suna genin and the two Konoha nin.

"The mission has begun," he said. "Gaara is our trump card," he said. "Get him out of here," he said.

"After them," the proctor ordered Naruto as the Kazekage's children headed up, then over the wall of the stadium.

Naruto didn't hesitate. He was off after them like a shot, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming and inevitable battle between himself and the three siblings. Whether he would fight them individually as they continued to run in an effort to give their youngest brother the time to recover his chakra, or if he would fight them all at once... he didn't know. He was going to be ready for either option though.

"_Four on two?"_ Kurama asked Naruto as he dropped down the other side of the stadium wall.

"You're right," Naruto agreed, and created a pair of _kage bunshin_ to see about getting some back-up. Shino, he got the feeling, would be eager for a chance to have the fight he was denied by the Suna kunoichi. Shikamaru, on the other hand, Naruto wasn't sure about. The guy was still a lazy Nara, even if Kenshin had gotten him a fair bit more motivated. He wasn't sure Neji would be up for it though. Their battle had been very recent and quite chakra-intensive for the Hyuuga boy.

Shino, Shikamaru, and the clones he'd sent for them caught up with him quickly. Haruno and a small dog weren't far behind them. The dog Naruto suspected of being sent by Hatake; he was fairly sure he recognised it as one of the collection of canines that held Momochi in place for Hatake to kill, back in Wave.

"Glad you could make it," Naruto greeted them absently.

"Kakashi-sensei said to bring you back..." Haruno offered.

Naruto shook his head. "The proctor ordered me to follow the Suna genin," he countered. "If they go past the village wall -" which they hadn't yet. Konoha was really very expansive, and had a good-sized forest even within the walls, "- then I'll break off the chase, but not before then."

"Hai, Naruto-sempai," Haruno agreed.

"Oi oi!" the dog objected. "Just like that, you're going along with it?"

"Pakkun-san," Haruno answered, "Naruto-sempai hasn't ever gotten me into something he couldn't also get me out of."

Naruto smiled slightly, gratified by the girl's faith in him and his abilities.

"There are two platoons following us," the dog, Pakkun, growlingly informed them. "No, another one, nine people are after us."

"Then I suggest we move faster," Naruto offered frankly, and proceeded to suit his actions to his words. "And maybe leave them some presents," he added with a sideways glance to his clones.

They nodded, and broke off.

Naruto was no traps expert, but more than just a few good, basic ones had been taught to all the students in the Academy. One of his clones would set up some traps. The second would create a false trail to confuse any of their pursuers that didn't get caught, escaped, or were freed from the traps set up by the first.

~oOo~

Shikamaru broke off from the group to detain those of their pursuers that had made it past the traps, and had been closing on them dangerously fast despite the false trail.

Haruno ordered them on when they were confronted by the Kazekage's daughter, who was performing for her brothers a similar service to that as Shikamaru was undertaking for them. Shino wanted to object, to claim the Suna kunoichi as _his_ opponent, but Haruno argued that they _knew_ he could defeat Kankurou, since he had done it before already, and very successfully. Haruno also confessed that, after hearing about the battle between Temari and Tenten, she'd been training seriously so that she would be able to defeat _both_ of the older kunoichi.

She stayed behind.

Temari caught up with them, though it took a while. Naruto, Shino, and Pakkun had just caught up with Kankurou and Gaara by then, and the girl was exhausted. Kankurou traded his brother off to his sister, grit his teeth, and said he would slow them down.

"Pakkun, you go back to Haruno," Naruto instructed.

"Hai," the dog agreed, and dashed off.

"Shino," Naruto said softly.

"A repeat," Shino agreed. "He'll be more wary, but my techniques will be no less effective," he promised. "Go."

Naruto nodded, and took off, dodging Kankurou's attempts to stop him as he leapt away through the treetops.

For being exhausted and carrying a dead weight, Temari still moved very quickly.

"Kurama," Naruto said softly, a hand over his stomach as he raced after the pair. "If the Shukaku sealed within Gaara is the same Shukaku you know, then I'm probably not going to be able to handle this alone."

Kurama chuckled darkly. _"No,"_ Kurama agreed. _"Probably not. If Shukaku is under the influence of a genjutsu, like I was, then I _will_ dispel it."_

"And if it's not a genjutsu?" Naruto asked softly. "If he really has gone mad?"

"_Then I will take him by the neck and shake him like a new-born until he comes to his senses,"_ Kurama answered with promise, his tone equal parts sad and angry. Shukaku was the weakest of his siblings, and also the last to be made by their father. Kurama had been the first, was the eldest, he had a duty of care for all his younger siblings.

A duty of care that was very hard to keep up with when his siblings were sealed into shinobi that were in nations that were enemies of his own 'care-taker'.

"It's a good thing they're moving towards a completely uninhabited area of Konoha's forest," Naruto stated.

"_Agreed."_

~oOo~

"You are called Himura," Gaara said. Temari had stopped, to tend to Gaara's injury, but Naruto had caught them up and Gaara had pushed her out of the way – not for her safety, but simply because she was in the way of _his_ _fight_. "You are strong. You have goals. You are similar to me."

"Yes," Naruto agreed.

"By killing you, I can exist in this world as the one who erased your existence!" Gaara declared, his tone low and bloodthirsty, even though he had a hand up to his face, covering one eye and clutching at his head, which seemed to pain him. The sand-armour on the other side of his face was laced with hair-line cracks. Cracks that spread and grew as the boy spoke. "I will be able to feel that I am alive! You are my..." he dropped to his knees, both hands raised to clutch at his head as he cried in pain. "You're... my...!" he screamed, as the sand began to form. "Prey!"

The sand had overtaken half of Gaara's face, a portion of his torso, and one arm. His eyes no longer matched.

"_Oh yes, that's my little brother,"_ Kurama confirmed as the boy-bijuu blend leapt at Naruto, the great sandy limb outstretched menacingly.

"But is he trapped in a genjutsu, or in his own insanity?" Naruto asked softly as he jumped away from the imminent threat.

"_With him only partially emerged, and me completely contained, it's hard to say,"_ Kurama admitted.

Hidden behind the trunk of another tree, Naruto confirmed that the only witness to this confrontation who wasn't a part of it was Temari, and loosed his sword in its sheath just enough for him to cut his thumb on the blade. He squeezed the shallow cut, forcing blood out of it, and placed his palm against the wide branch he was sitting on.

"_Kuchiose Kurama_," Naruto whispered.

The body that appeared was the same as the one called up by the _Kurama Bunshin_, except that it also had pointed ears, tails, claws, impressive fangs and slitted, golden eyes. Kurama also would _not_ pop like a bunshin this way.

"Better?" Naruto asked.

"Shukaku still isn't the whole way out," Kurama pointed out in gentle reminder, then lifted his nose to scent the air. "Damn," he whispered.

Naruto didn't ask. He didn't need to. Kurama knew what the question was.

"It's insanity, but not his own. Some mad human inflicted their insanity on my sweet little brother, and made him this," the fox-man growled, and his nine orange tails lashed angrily behind him.

"Salvageable?" Naruto asked.

Kurama's expression was grim, but still he gave a resolute nod.

"Are you scared of me, Himura Naruto?" Gaara called out. "Are you scared of my existence? Come out!"

Naruto stepped out, no fear or hesitation in his frame. "Gaara-san," he said calmly, "there is someone I want you to meet," he said, and Kurama also stepped out from the hiding place.

"Hello Shukaku, my precious little brother," Kurama said, his own golden eyes fixed on the single yellow eye that peered out of the sand-covered portion of Gaara's face. "Do you remember me? No, I suppose you don't right now. I'll fix that, and then you can introduce me to your vessel."

"What?!" Gaara demanded.

Kurama leapt across the space between them, and lay a hand over the yellow eye of the monstrous, sand-sculpted face.

"_Yaburu kokufuku sai sakusei_!"

Gaara screamed, and fell to his knees.

"Gaara!" Temari cried out in fear – but not only fear for herself. There was also fear for her little brother, and the monster that had so easily appeared to defeat him and the monster within him.

Kurama pulled.

The sand came away from Gaara. It came away in a figure that resembled a large tanuki, and Kurama caught this figure in his arms as it howled in pain.

Gaara fell... into Naruto's arms. The blonde had hurried to catch the red-head when he'd seen the boy swaying, even on his knees, after Kurama had pulled Shukaku out to fix him.

"Shh," Naruto whispered in Gaara's ear and gently stroked his hair. "Shh, it will be alright. It's okay to cry," he promised. "I'm sorry it hurt, and normally I'd never be part of any attempt to separate a person from their partner, but yours isn't himself, so Kurama is setting him straight. Shh, it will all be better soon."

"How -?!" Temari choked out.

"He is Kurama, the Kyuubi no Yoko, eldest and most powerful of the bijuu that were created and taught by the Rikkudo Sannin," Naruto informed the girl as neutrally as he could. "And he cares very much about his younger siblings. He'll fix everything with Shukaku."

Gaara was crying in Naruto's arms now as the blonde continued to stroke his short red hair softly, kindly, and without fear. Quite apart from everything else, Gaara's sand was all busy elsewhere right now, with Shukaku.

"You're like me," Gaara said through his tears. "You have a monster sealed inside you. Why... _why_ are we so different?"

Naruto hugged the other boy a little closer to him. "Because when you decided that you would only love, live, and fight for yourself, you decided to run from the one thing that could hurt you even though your sand protected you from pain," Naruto explained. "I ran towards it. I will protect my home and my family to my very last breath, they will do the same for me, and we will also fight desperately so that those we love will not have to mourn us. We do not fight to kill, but rather, we fight to live, and that for the sake of each other."

"You... you are..." Gaara choked, and wailed in emotional turmoil as more tears rolled down his pale cheeks.

"I am lucky," Naruto finished in understanding. "I know some of the loneliness you must feel, Gaara," he said. "My village is full of people who saw a monster, instead of a child, but my family cared for me and stood by me despite that, so I didn't have to feel lonely all the time."

"You mean... Gaara would have been more emotionally stable if we'd just been there for him?" Temari demanded, shocked by the revelation.

"Yes."

"Oh Kami... Gaara, I'm so sorry!" Temari wept.

"...Me too, Temari. Me too."

~oOo~

There were less dead than could have been, after the invasion was repelled. Only seven in total. Many more were injured and in hospital, but only seven dead. Seven that would be mourned and missed. Seven that included the Sandaime Hokage.

Every member of the Himura family dressed in their funeral kimono. There was a standard black set that most people wore to funerals in Konoha, but the Himura clan honoured the dead by taking the time to think about the people who were lost to them as they carefully donned each piece of their mourning attire. Even little Yahiko, who didn't totally understand what was going on, was solemn as Kagome wrapped his black kimono and obi around him.

"_Naruto, I would like to attend also,"_ Kurama requested.

Silently, Naruto formed the seals for the _Kurama bunshin_. Kurama appeared beside him, and with a few quick seals of his own, his clothing bled into black.

"I'd like to honour those on the memorial stone as well, after," Kurama added softly.

Naruto nodded. "Hai," he agreed. "We can do that."

"You are joining us, Kurama?" Kenshin noted when his son and the fox-in-human-form came down the stairs.

Kurama nodded. "May I stand with your family at the funeral, Kenshin-san?" he asked.

Purple eyes met green, and Kenshin nodded to the other red-head.

The family lined up then to leave for the funeral. Kenshin carried his youngest son, Kagome held the hand of her youngest daughter. Shippo took his big brother's hand, and Tomoe held one of Kurama's at the rear of the line.

As they walked, Kurama formed seals with the hand Tomoe wasn't holding, and hummed soft words under his breath.

Haku joined up with the Himura family, and took Tomoe's free hand.

Kurama finished his string of hand seals just as they arrived where the funeral was being held. He lowered his hand, and it began to rain.

"Kurama?" Naruto asked softly.

"It _should_ rain," the kitsune answered solemnly. "Rain to hide our tears of loss, and rain to cleanse us of the pain in our hearts. The sky itself should cry for the loss that Konoha feels."

"Arigato," Kagome said, a sad smile on her face. "But you know Kurama, it would have rained for our loss without you having to call on the Kami the way you did."

Kurama bowed his head. "I only wanted to make sure," he answered.

Kagome nodded. "Hai," she agreed. "Hai, we humans need this rain as much as the land."

"We will need to be strong in the coming days, as we restore our homes," Kenshin added. "Streets full of homes are not the right places to wage wars. They are not, but still wars are fought in such places. It is something we will not recover from quickly."

"Humans are both weaker and stronger than anything else in this world," Haku offered. "The pain will last long after we have healed from this."

Naruto, his parents, and Kurama all nodded in solemn agreement.

"This feeling of loss," Naruto said softly as people began to present their flowers in offering to those who were gone. "This is why we strive so hard to live, and fight so desperately to be the ones to die in place of others."

"Hai," Kenshin agreed.

~The End~


End file.
